


Lean On Me

by SpiritsFlame



Category: X-Men - All Media Types, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-16
Updated: 2011-09-16
Packaged: 2017-10-23 19:05:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 33,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/253846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiritsFlame/pseuds/SpiritsFlame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten years ago, Charles and Erik split up, dividing their six kids between them. None of them expect them to meet at summer camp. And no one could have predicted the results. Written for the reel_xmen challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> With much love and thanks to my beta, PurpleSpock, who put a lot of time, energy and encouraging comments into this fic!

Lean On Me

For as long as Raven can remember, Charles has been sad. He's not obvious about it, he doesn't roam around weeping all the time, but there is a quiet sort of nostalgia about him. Hank, the oldest in their little group of misfit toys (something picked up from her first viewing of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer at age 6 and never forgotten), says that it wasn’t always this way.

He says that they used to be a much bigger family, with two more brothers and another sister. He can't remember much, a couple of vague memories. He tells her that Charles used to dance with Raven and a dark haired girl in turns, and that another, taller man would put Hank on his shoulders.

"Don't be silly!" An 8 year old Raven had laughed when she first heard the story. "Charles can't dance."

"He could then." 10 year old Hank had replied somberly. It had been the first time that Raven had ever thought of the wheelchair as something that happened, rather than something that was. For as long as she could remember, Charles had been in his wheelchair. If she had thought about it, she may have guessed he was born with it.

It was a somber thought for an 8 year old. If it could happen to Charles, it could happen to anyone. It could happen to her!

"Is that why he's sad sometimes? Does he miss climbing trees?" Raven loved to climb trees. The thought that it might be taken away from her made her sad too.

Hank had been thoughtful. Hank was almost always thoughtful, so Raven had waited patiently for him to answer. In her mind, Hank was the bestest big brother ever and the smartest person she knew, after Charles.

"I think it's that he misses the others. We had two more brothers, and a sister and another Dad.”

"I'd like to have a sister." Raven had sighed. They didn’t talk about it much, after that.

\--

Raven is a bit worried about their first trip to camp. She doesn't want to leave Charles alone even for the 6 week trip. It's in the moments when the house is quiet or when he thinks he's alone that he gets that sad, lonely look again. When they see it, they do something to cheer him up, Raven will do one of her imitations or Hank will start talking about science or Sean will talk about his television shows until Charles is smiling and laughing again.

"I'll be fine." Charles had said, when she voiced her concern. "Thank you for thinking of me, but I want you to have this. All children should go to camp. It'll be a nice, normal experience for you."

Raven snorts, because nothing their family ever does is normal. Misfit toys was not an inappropriate name for them.

Charles smiles like he knows what she's thinking. He does that a lot. She hates it when he does that. "Look after your brothers."

"Don't I always? Misfit toys forever, remember?"

"That's my girl."

\--

Camp is almost exactly what Hank had expected. He may or may not have watched as many 'camp movies' as he could over the past two months in preparation. He'll admit to nothing. Charles had sent them all to a camp almost 1000 miles away, saying only that an old friend worked there. Raven, Hank and Sean had spent a good portion of their trip talking excitedly about what it might be like, their predictions getting more and more ludicrous as the trip wore on.

There was a large wooden sign by the entrance that read 'Aestas Adventure Camp.' Hank had originally voted on a science camp but Raven and Sean had shouted him down. They have the airport driver drop them off just inside the gates, not wanting to call unnecessary attention to themselves- the sleek black design of the limo a far cry from the family jeeps and brightly painted buses that were coming in behind them.

They get their bags from the trunk before the driver can do it for them and Hank takes Sean's duffel in addition to his own rolling case while Raven hefts her bag over one shoulder and they set off into the fray together.

It's chaos. There are people everywhere, hugging and yelling, reuniting with friends from previous years or saying goodbye to parents. It's easy to tell the experienced campers with their easy confidence from the shy newcomers who huddle near the cars or linger by the luggage piles.

Their years of neatly organized and rigidly structured private schooling had not prepared them for this and for a moment they had to just stop and marvel before Hank takes a deep breath and heads towards a women with a clipboard standing in the very center of the chaos.

It's awkward trying to fight his way through the sea of people, dragging his own bag with Sean's over one shoulder, so when a little red-head rushes past him, intent on nothing but the friend she's trying to reach, Hank is knocked off balance. He staggers for a moment and Sean's bag hits someone in the back of the head.

"Hey!" they yell angrily and Hank is about to start apologizing when he meets blazing blue eyes and falls momentarily silent, tongue tied. The blue eyes are glaring at him from a boy with bright blond hair and a scowl. "Watch where you're going, Bozo!" and he shoves Hank hard enough to make him almost drop Sean's bag again.

"What a jerk." Raven mutters from his elbow as they watch the blond boy leave. "You ok?"

"Fine." Hank mutters, flushing.

As it turns out, the woman with the clipboard is Charles' friend Gabrielle and she gives each of them a big hug when they introduce themselves.

"Sorry, but you guys aren't in the same cabin. All the cabins are sorted by age and gender. Hank, you're in Cabin 2, Raven is in 8 and Sean in 5." she smiles at them, almost disproportionately happy to see them. She looks like she might hug them again so Hank thanks her politely and heads back into the throng of people.

"This his gonna be great!" Raven says excitedly. "I mean, I love my boys, but sometimes a girl needs to be with other girls." She gives Hank a peck on the cheek and ruffles Sean's hair before heading towards the councilor with a number 8.

Hank isn't so sure. He isn't good with boys his own age. He sighs and hands Sean his bag and goes with him to his cabin.

\--

Alex is 16 and he has this camp thing down. He, Darwin and Angel have been going to Aestas Adventure Camp for the past three years and he totally knows what to expect. He's excited by his promotion to cabin 2, second only to Cabin 1 in cool points and the unofficial second in command among the campers.

Angel sees a friend from last year and Darwin has already gone off to his cabin. They had learned early on that it was better to get to the cabins as soon as possible, so as to have first pick of the beds.

Alex gives Gabrielle a halfhearted wave but steers clear of her and her overly enthusiastic hugs. He's heading to Cabin 2 to follow Darwin's example when someone hits him, hard, in the back of the head with a fucking duffle bag.

"Hey!" he exclaims, turning angrily and coming face to face with one of the most gorgeous boys he's ever seen. The boy has large blue eyes behind horn-rimmed glasses and a full mouth that makes Alex want to do filthy things to him. It makes him even angrier because what right does this boy have to be so fucking pretty when Alex is still trying to figure things out, sexually speaking. "Watch where you're going, Bozo!" he says and dammit, the flush rising over the boys cheeks just makes him more attractive. Alex shoves him, just for good measure, and strides off.

He's first to the cabin and gleefully claims the top bunk by the window and decides to just wait here for the others to arrive- just in case some punk thinks it would be a good idea to try and move his shit.

John comes just as Alex beats the fourth level on his new game and claims the top bunk along the same wall as Alex's bed. They had been friends since their first year at camp when they used their camp-fire experience to try and light as many things as possible on fire.

"Whachya playing?" John asks as he climbs up next to Alex and he shows him. They trade playing different levels for the next ten minutes before a new kid they don't recognize comes in and takes the bottom bunk across the room from Alex.

"Hi!" he says cheerfully. "I'm Bobby."

"Whatever." John responds, not looking up from the game and Alex waves halfheartedly. Slowly, all the bunks fill up except the one under Alex, possibly because because of his and John's violent playing style, their legs swung over the side of the bed and kicking wildly, preventing any access to the bottom bunk.

Then, the gorgeous boy with the dorky glasses and full lips enters the cabin hesitantly, dragging his bag behind him and sans the offending duffel from earlier. It's John's turn to play so Alex surreptitiously watches him out of the corner of his eye. Glasses stops just inside the doorway, eye flicking around the room. The other boys are starting to unpack or just lounging on their beds and it's clear that the bed under Alex's bunk is the only one free.

Glasses doesn't say anything, just takes his suitcase and, when their kicking prevents him access to the bed, just sets the bag by his shelves and stands there awkwardly.

Alex takes this as a cue and jumps down from his bunk. "If it isn't Bozo!" he exclaims and Bozo, nee Glasses, just ducks his head, that pretty blush creeping up his cheeks again. "Guess you're my new bunkmate!"

Bozo mutters something that sounds like 'Great' and Alex slaps him on the shoulder. This is going to be fun.

\--

Raven is worried. She's a worrier. It comes from having a father in a wheelchair and a brother who is too smart and too shy for his own good. Not to mention Sean's trouble making nature that not even his cheerfulness can excuse.

She's grabbed a top bunk near the door and already made friends with her bunkmate, a pretty southern girl named Anne Marie. Still, she worries about Hank, who never does well with boys his own age. She isn't as worried about Sean this time because his mischief may get him in trouble at school it usually makes him friends in social situations.

Anne Marie teases her about having a brother complex and Raven just shrugs. She won't apologize for loving her brother, their lives have made them close. "When you see him, you'll understand."

They’d all had dinner together, but it had been a whirlwind of introductions and laughter and Raven hadn’t pointed Hank out.

The next morning at breakfast Hank is sitting by himself, slightly separate from the rest of the cabin. Raven shakes her head and drags Anne Marie over to say hello. She shoves herself between two boys opposite Hank and lets Anne Marie take the seat next to her brother.

"Hank, this is Anne Marie. Anne Marie, this is my brother Hank."

"Pleased to meet you." Anne Marie says politely.

"Hey, Bozo, who's this?" a blond boy asks, leaning over his neighbor to address Hank. "Not your girlfriend- she's way too hot for you."

"She's my sister." Hank snaps and the boy laughs.

"Not by blood, I'll bet." and they both bristle. Raven is about to say something that would likely get them all in trouble but to her surprise, Anne Marie is the first one to answer.

"He's a lot hotter than any of you losers! Hank, want to come sit with us?" she gestures at the other Cabin 8 girls. Hank looks sideways at the boys in his cabin and nods.

"Sure." he gets his cereal and silverware while Raven grabs his orange juice. "That's going to cause trouble later." he says softly as they sit down.

"Don't worry about it. Anne Marie and I have your back."

"Gee, thanks." Hank replies, but he's smiling.

\--

After breakfast they head back to their cabins and Alex pushes Hank into a bush, "Need your little sister to fight your battles, Bozo?" he sneers.

To Hank's surprise, Bobby from the bottom bunk across the cabin helps him up.

"Don't worry about him. He's just a jerk."

Hank laughs. "You sound like my sister."

Bobby shrugs. "Maybe you should listen to us."

The rest of the day passes in relative peace, excluding Alex's continued taunts and shoves.

"What I can't figure out is, if he hates me so much why doesn't he just ignore me." Hank says to Bobby later, both of the sitting cross-legged on Bobby's bed, playing cards. "I never did anything to him."

Bobby shrugs and deals them both a new hand.

"Some people are just jerks. Best two of three?"

Hank smirks at him. "You won't win."

Bobby shoves him playfully. "Someone's cocky. Where'd you learn to play cards like this anyway?"

"My Dad taught me. He's amazing. He can always tell when someone is bluffing, and he taught us. That and chess, but Sean and Raven never had the patience for it."

"Raven is the blond, right?" Bobby asks, carefully studying his cards.

"That's her. But never play her in poker- she'll take every last cent you have with a smile on her face."

"And, uh, who was her friend?" His voice is almost too casual and Hank starts to smirk when a smooth voice interrupts him.

"Are you playing poker?" It's Alex and he sounds completely incredulous. Then a smirk spreads across his face. “Do you want to play against someone who knows what they're doing?"

If it means playing against Alex, then no- Hank really, really doesn't, but Alex is pushing Bobby out of the way and taking five cards for himself and something in Hank wants to prove something (he blames Raven entirely.)

Six rounds later and all the money Alex brought with him is spread on the bed between them and Hank claims it all with a full house (queens high) and smirk. The rest of the cabin is arranged around their bed and Bobby is leaning against the wall, having bowed out after Hank and Alex started playing for real stakes.

"One more round." Alex says when Hank starts to put his cards away. Hank smirks, feeling confident for the first time around Alex.

"You have nothing left to bet with." Hank points out calmly.

"New stakes."

"Well, they'd have to be." This gets titters from the others boys and Hank feels a glow of pleasure. Sighing theatrically, he deals them both a new round. "What are the stakes?"

"Loser jumps in the lake." Alex looks at his cards and adds. "Naked."

The crowd oohs and Hank looks at his cards. He has an Ace, Queen, Jack, 10 and 3, in a mixture of hearts and clubs. "Alright."

They both take one card and Hank gets the King of diamonds for his 3, completing the straight. "Last chance to back out," he offers, but Alex just smirks at him.

"Pass."

"Better get ready to dive then." Hank says and shows his cards. The surrounding boys make appropriately awed noises.

"Impressive" Alex says. "But unfortunately, not impressive enough."Alex smirks as he slowly reveals his cards, revealing a royal flush in spades and Hank can feel horror rising in him even as he nods, trying to appear calm.

"11 o'clock then?" Hank asks, proud that his voice is steady and controlled.

\--

Alex is starting to question the wisdom of his plan when Hank reaches for the top button on his shirt and he feels a hot flush crawl down his neck. He forces a smirk onto his face and makes sounds like a porno soundtrack that makes Hank turn a flattering (damn him) shade of red.

He's surprisingly built, and Alex kind of wants to lick him. "Get on with it!" he calls instead. Hank glares at him, face bright red, and strips off his pants and underwear. 'Fuck me, he is huge' Alex thinks and swallows hard.

Hank's hands are fisted at his side and it’s obvious he's fighting not to cover himself (Alex suspects he wouldn't be entirely successful if he tried because Jesus.) Then Hank turns on his heel towards the pier and yup, the view is just as good from here. Alex wolf whistles and wow- the blush goes that far?

Hank's walk is just short of a jog and he dives off the pier in a swift, smooth move that makes Alex's mouth go dry. He waits barely a second after Hank goes under to run forward and grab his clothes then he and John take off before Hank realizes what's going on. Alex doesn't think he can take seeing Hank come out of the water, moonlight gleaming on his pale skin and water sluicing off of him.

\--

Hank sits with Cabin 8 the next morning and Bobby joins him in a show of solidarity. In exchange Hank introduces him to Anne Marie (who prefers just Marie, apparently). Watching them talk shyly and blush every time their hands brush goes a long way towards making him feel better.

"So, revenge?" Raven asks when she comes back from getting a second helping of waffles, handing Hank a pancake with a whipped cream smiley face (because apparently his sister thinks he's still six- even if it does make him smile.)

"I assume you have a plan?" he responds and she grins at him.

"I only have the short term simple plans. I'm guessing you have more in mind?"

"It's possible." Hank concedes.

\--

Raven does her part during dinner. "Put this in his shampoo." She whispers as they pass each other in line.

"Where'd you get it?" He whispers back, pretending to examine the potato salad.

"One of the counselors likes me."

\--

Alex oversleeps the next day and rushes through his morning shower and dressing without looking in the mirror, so he doesn't understand why everyone is laughing when he enters the dining hall.

Angel greets him while he's getting his food. "Bro, I hate to tell you, but red is not your color."

"What?" Alex asks, confused. He checks his shirt- it's still the black one he put on this morning.

Angel is smirking at him and she hands him her compact mirror. Alex lets out a cry of horror upon seeing that his hair is bright, clown red that makes everyone in the dining hall laugh harder.

“Angel,” he says, snapping the compact closed. "I'm going to need your help."

Angel may look like an innocent 15 year old girl, but behind her pretty brown eyes is a vicious little mastermind.

She taps one perfectly manicured finger against her lips. "I have an idea. Do you know who did it?"

He indicates Hank with a jerk of his head. He's still sitting at Cabin 8 and both he and his sister are laughing openly. "I'm betting his sister was in on it too."

Angel grins, "I say we go after the sister first."

\--

When Raven stomps into breakfast the next day, she looks like a ghost and she's visibly fuming.

"What happened to you?” Hank asks.

Raven snarls at him. "That bitch put baby powder in my hair dryer. It got all over the cabin and I didn't have a chance to take another shower."

"I'm sorry. I should have known Alex would target you too."

"It wasn't just him this time. Kitty says she saw Angel from Cabin 9 messing with my hairdryer, but she assumed Angel was a friend of mine and didn't say anything."

"Angel? The girl with the tattoos? Why would she help him?"

Raven looks at him in surprise. "Didn't you know? She's his sister."

Hank looks from Alex's blond hair and pale skin to Angel's black hair and dark complexion and scowls. "And he gets on me about blood relatives."

"Well, if she wants to get involved, then she can enjoy the ride."

\--

Using cleaning bleach and about an inch of Raven's hair, Hank makes some extra strength itching powder.

"I'm related to McGyver." Raven jokes as she takes the half meant for Angel.

\--

As it turns out, the itching powder works fantastically, especially since neither Alex nor Angel are allowed to shower until after dinner. After Alex and Angel have taken about six showers each and washed all of their clothes they decide that a similar clothes related prank is appropriate. They get the idea from the fact that Alex's hair is still an incurably bright shade of red.

\--

When Sean sees both of his siblings come into breakfast wearing entirely blue clothes, covered in the evidence of a poor dye job that looks like a sloppy tye-dye, he decides that they need his help.

They help him raid the arts and crafts cabin later that night and the next day they ambush Alex and Angel before breakfast with rainbow loaded squirt guns.

\--

"Darwin. We need your help." Alex says later that night. Darwin looks at the pink paint dripping from his temple to the purple splatters covering Angel's stomach.

"Is this about the war you're having with the two Xaviers?" he says.

"Three. Apparently they have another brother. We're outnumbered." Angel says.

"That, and we need to do some heavy lifting."

Darwin frowns at them both. “Does the name Xavier sound familiar to either of you?”

“Unless it was in the dictionary under ‘pain in my ass,’ no.” Alex snaps. “Are in in or out?”

Darwin sighs. "You're lucky I love you two so much."

\--

When the three of them get back to their cabins Raven and Sean find their bunks on top of the cabins. The three of them can only stare, gaping at the sight, the way their beds have been perfectly recreated on the roof, down to Sean’s little floppy eared dog and Raven’s rabbit, which she’d definitely hidden in her suitcase.

All three of them stand and fume, more campers filling in around them to laugh. Hank, they suspect, has only been spared because he shares a bunk with Alex.

\--

One of Angel’s friend corners Alex on the way to the bathroom to try to wash the dye out of his hair for the hundredth time.

“I like your hair.” She observes, twirling a piece her own scarlet locks around one finger. Her name starts with a J, he’s pretty sure.

“Thanks.” he mutters grumpily, trying to move past her. She puts her hand out to stop him.

“You look like my boyfriend.”

“Um. Thank you?” Alex asks, unsure if this is a come on and even more unsure about what to do if it is.

“Maybe you’re related. What’s your last name?” she asks, because she’s apparently sincere. Alex stares at her. Really?

“Lehnsherr.” J-something actually looks disappointed. Did she honestly expect him to be related to her boyfriend? Alex wonders incredulously, because their lives are not a Hollywood movie.

“Is that it?” he asks, starting to move past her again.

“You should meet him sometime!” she calls after him.

“Sure!” he calls, not even looking back at her. “Like that will happen.” he adds to himself.

\--

It all comes to a head on the second Wednesday of camp. It's been 10 days since they arrived and the relationship between Hank and Alex, and their siblings by extension, has devolved into all out war.

It’s recreation time, and Raven bullies Hank into going canoeing with her and Sean. As a rule, Hank hates water based activities of any sort. He can swim, Charles had insisted on that much, but there was something about it he disliked. Raven had always teased him for being a giant cat that way, and only her assurance that canoeing wouldn’t involve him actually in the water had gotten him this far.

That was, of course, without taking the Lehnsherr siblings into account. In an act of incredibly poor planning, they had put Sean in charge of steering- their logic being that it would take less physical strength than paddling.

None of them are really paying attention, Hank and Raven are playfully bickering over where Spider-Man ranked in the super-hero hierarchy (Hank arguing high because Peter Parker is also a bad-ass scientist, and Raven arguing low because, compared to Iron Man and Batman, he was pretty weak.) Sean is stubbornly insisting that Superman is the coolest and is holding his own argument on the subject.

Which is why none of them really notice the paddleboat until they crash right into it. It was really only their bad luck that had Darwin and Angel as the two riders, as anyone else would probably have accepted their apology. Instead, it devolves into a yelling match that only gets worse when Alex paddles over in his kayak.

Some harsh words are exchanged- Angel calls Raven a hag, and Hank calls Angel a slut. Alex calls Hank a freak, which has always been a touchy subject for him and Raven maybe goes a bit overboard with her defense when she calls Alex a lonely loser who is cruel just for the sake of it and will never be loved.

And, well, Alex has never been known for his anger management abilities and he launches himself at their canoe with a yell of rage. The four of them go toppling into the water, grappling and yelling like maniacs. It’s lucky that Angel and Darwin, the only two not in the water, don’t have paddles or someone may have gotten seriously injured.

Someone, probably Raven because of the three of the Xavier siblings, she’s the most vicious, grabs a side of the paddleboat and yanks. Angel shrieks and grabs onto Raven’s hair. Sean and Hank are both scrabbling with Alex and Darwin has serious reservations about fighting a twelve-year old.

The sudden, shrill call of a whistle makes them all stop, turning to see Gabrielle standing on the dock, looking furious.

“The six of you will be spending the rest of camp at the Isolation Cabin.” she says, her voice a deathly calm.

\--  
The ‘Isolation Cabin’ isn’t much different from the cabin Alex had just vacated, with three bunk beds instead of four and larger windows. Alex and Angel have a brief tussle over the top bunk (Angel wins- Alex pretends it’s chivalry and not because he’s a bit scared of her sometimes) and Hank takes the bottom bunk across the room with Raven. By mutual agreement, Sean shares with Darwin, since they were the most removed from their feud and Darwin gives the top bunk to the younger boy.

They spend most of the day in stony silence, each group keeping to itself.

Hank and Raven play chess while Sean watches, offering sarcastic comments and cheering on both his siblings in turn. After awhile Raven smacks him with her pillow and says that if he couldn’t cheer for her, he couldn’t cheer at all. After that he only cheered for Raven until Hank shoved him over, laughingly complaining of favouritism.

Angel, Darwin and Alex play poker. Alex loses spectacularly as he keeps trying to pretend like he isn’t watching Hank out of the corner of his eye. He’s never seen him so relaxed, so comfortable. His eye is drawn to Hank’s throat when he throws his head back in laughter, and the way he licks his lips when he’s thinking about his next move.

They have to sit at an isolated table at dinner. Fortunately, it’s one of the tables meant for an entire cabin of eight and there’s a good three feet between the two groups.

Night time proves to be more difficult. Raven and Hank want to continue their chess game, while Angel and Darwin want to go to bed. Alex is fine either way, because he really just wants to play his DS.

“If you think you need your beauty rest, I really don’t think it will help.” Raven snaps, and Angel looks ready to fling herself across the room in another round of physical violence before Darwin catches her around the waist.

The argument is settled when Sean falls asleep on Hank’s bunk. Out of consideration for the youngest, they all pile into bed and turn the lights off. Rather than risk waking Sean, Hank takes the bed with Darwin. It’s a tentative truce, but it’s there.

\--

It’s gone by morning. There’s only one bathroom and Angel and Raven fight over it like lives are on the line. Alex could care less what their hair looks like, but he would really like to use the restroom.

Lunch is when things finally change. Janos, who has never forgiven Alex for beating him at the obstacle course their first year, is walking past their table when he stops to sneer at them.

“Look who’s in trouble again. I guess I should have expected it from a foster kid. Your own parents didn’t even want you.”

Alex stands, ready to punch Janos for being such a nasty little bitch, but he’s on the far end of the table and, to his surprise, Hank gets their first. To Alex’s shock, he lands Janos on the floor with one punch. Alex is a little embarrassed about how fast his mouth goes dry at that.

“Boys!” Gabrielle yells, coming up on them like a storm. “If you can’t even manage to conduct yourself in the dining hall like civilized people then I’m afraid you will have to spend the rest of the day in the Isolation Cabin.”

“But Ma’m!” Hank protests.

“No buts.” she says firmly. “Go back to your cabin immediately. All of you.”

Angel looks ready to protest this last bit but Darwin puts a hand on her arm. Alex wonders if it’s because he knows Alex would have acted in the same way if Hank hadn’t gotten there first.

“It was worth it.” Raven mutters, kicking Janos as she steps over him. “Misfit toys forever, remember Hank?” she asks as she slips her hand into his.

“Always.” he grins.

“Did you see the look on his face?” Sean exclaims.

“It was pretty great.” Alex interjects, coming up to walk on Hank’s other side. “Where’d you learn to punch like that?”

Hank seems surprised at Alex’s lack of hostility. “My Dad is big on fitness.”

“Oh.” Alex considers for a moment. “Thanks for sticking up for us in there.”

Hank looks at him in surprise. “For you? I thought-well. I thought that was directed at the three of us.”

Alex boggles at him. “You’re foster kids?”

Hank frowns at him slightly. “I thought you knew that. We were all adopted by our father when we were young.”

They’ve reached the Isolation Cabin by now and Alex follows Hank over to his bunk and sits next to him.

“The three of us are the same.”

“Really?” Raven asks, nudging both of them over to sit next to Hank.

“Oh, like that wasn’t obvious.” Angel laughs, dropping gracefully to the floor at Alex’s feet. After a moment, Darwin and Sean join her.

“I don’t like to make assumptions.” Raven sniffs.

“So, are any of you related?” Darwin asks and Hank shrugs.

“Not by blood. We were all adopted about a year apart when we were little. There used to be more of us, but something happened. What about you three?”

Darwin is giving Hank a speculative look but Angel is the one who answers.

“About the same as you. All three of us were adopted young.”

“Weird.” Sean says, and they all look at him. “That we all have so much in common.” he clarifies, shrugging.

“Yeah, I guess it is.” Alex agrees. “Don’t think this means I like you though.”

Hank smirks. “I wouldn't dream of it.”

\--

“I’m so bored!” Sean complains, dropping his head over the edge of his bed to stare at Darwin. Hank is reading, Angel is flipping through a magazine and Alex is playing his DS with a look a fierce concentration that promises danger to anyone that bothers him. Raven is painting her nails with a studied concentration that Sean knows better than to interrupt.

Darwin, is, as far as Sean can tell, doing nothing.

“Bored!” Sean repeats, in case Darwin hadn’t gotten the message.

“What do you me to do about it, squirt?”

Sean thinks it over for a long minute. “Want to play cards?”

Darwin sighs hugely, but rolls himself out of bed. Sean yells delightedly and jumps down from his bunk.

“Raven, I’m taking your cards!” he yells, rummaging through her bag and ignoring her indignant noise.

Darwin, who’d already begun to deal with a deck of his own, said “No, it’s fine. I have some. Want to start with Go Fish?”

Sean takes a seat next to him looking slightly put out. “I’m not five.” Sean grumbles. “And our deck is nicer.” he adds, picking up his pile with visible reluctance.

Then he frowns at the cards. “These are our cards!”

“They are not!” Darwin responds hotly and Sean glares at him.

“Yes, they are! You took them!”

“How stupid would I be to play you with cards I took?” Darwin demands.

“Obviously pretty stupid!” Sean yells, and Hank looks up from his book at the noise.

“What are you two arguing about? We’re supposed to be getting along!”

“He took our cards!”

Hank frowns, looking skeptical but getting up to look. “Maybe they just look similar.”

“How many decks like this do you think they are?” Sean demands.

Hank peers at the deck. “They do look like our cards.” At Darwin’s furious look, he raises his hands placating. “I’m not accusing anyone. It’s just weird.”

“These are my cards.” Darwin says firmly. “They’ve been in my bag this entire time.”

Sean makes a disbelieving noise.

“Guys, our deck is right here.” Raven interjects, holding out her deck as evidence.

“Oh.” Sean looks sheepish. “Sorry.”

“Can I see those?” Darwin asks. “Since I was accused of stealing them and all.”

Shrugging, Raven hands them over. Darwin holds them next to his own deck and the two are almost completely indistinguishable.

“Weird.” Sean says, but Darwin is looking between the two like they hold the key to some secret.

“It’s not just weird. They’re identical. My Dad always said his was a custom set.”

“So did ours.” Raven said thoughtfully. “He said he got them Paris, a long time ago.”

“Guess he got ripped off.” Sean shrugs, picking up the cards that Darwin had dealt earlier. “I really am sorry about that.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Darwin said absently, handing the cards back to Raven and looking distracted.  
They played almost three rounds when Darwin suddenly burst out. “Don’t you think it’s weird though?”

“What is?” Sean asks absently, still trying to decide whether to put down his two sixes or wait until he got all four.

“That we have the same deck of cards. My Dad always made it sound like they were one of a kind.”

“It’s just a coincidence, dude, you’re making a big deal out of nothing.” Sean puts down the two sixes because at this rate, it’s not like Darwin is going to win anyway.

“No, I think he’s right. Dad once said they were hand painted in Paris. That’s not the sort of thing you find just anywhere.” Raven says, jumping into the conversation quickly, as though she’s been thinking about this the whole time.

“Ok.” Hank interjects, putting his book on Quantum Physics to the side “Let’s say you and Darwin are right. This isn’t a coincidence, that the decks are somehow connected. What do you think it means? That our Dads got ripped off? That they both went to the same shop in Paris? What does it matter?”

Raven drops her head over the edge of the bed to frown at him. “It’s just weird, that’s all.”

“Oh my god guys, it’s just a fucking deck of cards!” Alex snaps. “Let it go!”

“Aren’t you even a little curious?” Raven asks.

“No!” Alex snaps back.

“Alex.” Darwin says, and there’s a hint of command in his voice that makes Alex subside grumpily.

\--

Gabrielle brings them dinner and tells them that they could come back for breakfast the next day if they thought they could behave themselves. They all mumble their assent and take the food without really meeting her eyes.

There aren’t any tables in the cabin, so they all gather in a circle on the floor, passing food back and forth. There’s a brief squabble over silverware and another one when everyone tries to get their desserts first, but it’s resolved but Darwin and Hank without violence.

After dinner they’re all feeling restless, and Alex challenges Hank to a race and is incredibly surprised when Hank accepts. All three Xavier children are grinning broadly when Hank and Alex take their places at the impromptu starting line.

The terms are to the end of the path that leads into camp and back and Alex takes off like a bullet when Angel yells for them to start. He wasn’t really expecting it to be any sort of competition- he’d played baseball the past two years of high school and Hank looked like running was only something he’d read about in books.

So, when Hank passes him less than half way through Alex slows a bit out of sheer surprise. He puts on an extra burst of speed so that he and Hank are running almost directly next to each other. They reach the end of the path at the same time and are at a matching pace on the way back.

Then Hank turns to him and his face is wild and alive and he’s grinning broadly when he says “You’ll have to be a lot faster than that to beat me.” and he takes off so fast that Alex suspects he’d been holding back the entire time.

Alex loses sight of him towards the end and when he reaches the finish line Hank is already there, grinning broadly and only looking slightly winded.

“Oh, didn’t I mention? I did track in school.”

He high-fives Sean and behind them, Alex can see Darwin handing five dollars to a smirking Raven.

“Seriously though.” Alex asks as they walk in “You knock a guy out with one punch, you run like a fucking pro. You’re the worst nerd I’ve ever seen.”

Hank shrugs, grinning broadly. “I told you, my Dad’s into fitness.”

Alex snorts. “So’s mine, but I’m not a beast like you.”

Hank’s smile is a bit sardonic when he replies. “I work hard at it. It’s pretty hard to justify to someone in a wheelchair why you don’t want to run every morning.”

“Jesus.” Alex breathes. “I’m sorry.”

Hank shrugs. “It’s always been like that. I can only barely remember when he was walking. I was just six at the time.”

“What happened?”

“Car accident. I asked him about it once. He used to joke that it wasn’t even the worst thing that happened to him that week.”

Alex laughs. “Did he say what was?”

Hank grins back. “He just said it was a matter of perspective.”

Alex slaps him on the back. “You know, you’re not so bad. Beast.”

Hank grins “Oh, what, I jock up for you and suddenly I’m ok? Sorry, but you’ll have to have a pretty decent grasp on physics to impress me.”

“Physics, really? You were so cool a minute ago!”

\--

This night is different from the one before, when they had all been angry and resentful. Darwin and Hank play a game of chess while Alex shows Sean his video game. Raven and Angel are pouring over one of Angels magazine and discussing hair products. (Tactfully, neither of them mention the fact that Alex has still been unable to get the red out of his hair.)

When they do turn out the lights, it’s by mutual agreement and their truce hanging in the air.

Raven leans down over the edge of her bunk to whisper to Hank. “As the days turn into night,” and Hank joins in as she continues, “Keep your worries out of sight. Close your eyes and go to sleep, all the good times are yours to keep.”

Raven falters when she realizes that more voices have joined them, and it isn’t Sean, like she had expected. It’s Darwin and Angel. “Sweetest dreams and goodnight.” she finishes after a long moment.

There’s an awkward silence that no one wants to break.

“I didn’t realize that other people ever said that.” Raven finally whispers.

“Neither did I.” Angel replies, just as quietly.

Darwin lays awake for a long time, thinking it over.

\--

It rains all through the next day, so they all stay inside and play cards. Raven insists on poker to start and completely cleans everyone out until they all demand a change to Gin.

“Don’t any of you think it’s weird though?” Darwin demands, halfway through the second round. “That we all knew the same words last night?”

“It’s just a goodnight. I’m sure lots of people know it.” Alex shrugs.

“But I’ve never heard anyone else say it. Just Erik.”

Hank, reaching for the top of the pile, suddenly freezes. “Erik?” he repeats.

“Yeah, our Dad. Why?”

“It’s probably nothing, it’s just, our Dad mentions an Erik sometimes.”

“Like how? Like his favourite cousin Eric? Because it’s not an uncommon name.” Angel asks.

“No, it’s always in past tense. ‘Erik would have hated this,’ or ‘this was Erik’s favorite book.’” Raven answered.

“When I was struggling with, well, something,” Hank exchanges a half look with Raven and Alex gets the feeling that she, at least, knows what he’s talking about. “He told me ‘Erik used to say that it is better to believe in yourself above everything else, because society won’t accept you when you can’t accept yourself.’”

There’s another moment of silence before Alex says, slowly, quietly, “Our Dad said the same thing to me once.” When he came out, so afraid that Erik would think that this particular adoption was a mistake, but he leaves that bit unspoken.

Raven toys nervously with something on the end of a silver chain. “So what does it mean? Is Charles’ Erik the same person as your Dad? Did they know each other?”

“I think- I think they may have loved each other.” Darwin says.

“What?” Angel says, surprised. “That’s a bit of a leap, don’t you think?”

Darwin shrugs. “Not really. It’s the cards, you see. They’re matching decks. I asked Dad where he got them once and he said it may as well have been his honeymoon. I think your Dad got them at the same place. On their honeymoon.”

“But, Dad isn’t married.” Raven protests weakly.

Hank is frowning though. “There used to be someone else though. Before the accident. You and Sean probably don’t remember, but there used to be others. More kids. And a tall man who would put me on his shoulders. He used to call Sean-”

“Banshee.” Darwin finishes and Hank’s head jerks around to stare at him.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I was six when I was adopted by Erik. He and another man came to the orphanage where I was staying. I’d already been sent back twice and I told them that I’d do anything to be adopted, be whoever they wanted me to be. And the other man bent down and told me that I only had to be myself. We went to this mansion that there were two boys and two girls. And I told them what I told Erik, that I’d be whoever they wanted me to be.”

Hank is smiling just a little. “I was such a know-it-all when I was little. I read anything I could find and I would tell everyone about it. And there was this other kid who was with us and he kept talking about adapting to survive and I thought it sounded like evolution.”

“And you said. ‘Like Darwin!’ And it stuck.”

The others are staring at them, their mouths gaping open.

“You can’t be saying what it sounds like you’re saying.” Raven says, twisting her necklace so hard that it looks like it’s going to snap.

“What are you playing with?” Angel asks suddenly, reaching out and gently taking the chain from Raven’s fist. It sits her palm, silver against her tan skin and they all stare at it. It’s an antique silver key, delicately carved and beautiful.

Slowly, barely breathing, Angel draws a chain from beneath her shirt, revealing an almost identical key.

“I got it when I was adopted.” she says. “I don’t remember it, but Dad says it’s to remind me that I always have a place to come home to.”

Raven’s voice is choked when she says “My Dad says the same thing.”

Hank draws a slightly heavier key from inside his own shirt. “We all have one.” he swallows. “Did Erik ever mention our Dad? Charles Xavier?”

Darwin frowns thoughtfully. “I’m not-”

Alex cuts him off. “He mentioned that he used to be with a man. Someone he loved. I was stressed about something and he showed me this ratty old picture out of his wallet. I have a copy.”

Angel stares at him. “You made a copy of his picture?”

Alex flushes. “I thought- it was important to him, I didn’t want to just take it.” He goes to his bunk and digs in his bag for a long minute.

“Do you have anything?” Darwin asks. “You said your Dad mentions Erik, did he keep any photos?”

Raven hesitates. “There is one. It’s all torn though. He gave it to me when I broke my leg. He said it was perspective. I gave it back it when I got better but,” she gives Alex a sheepish smile. “I made a copy too.”

She rummages through her own bag, finding her box of keep-sakes (a picture of the four Xaviers, a scrap of fabric from her baby blanket, a watch that belonged to her birth mother and the picture that Dad had given her.)

Alex is still searching when she straightens up but she won’t show her picture to the others until he has his.

Finally, with the weight of every one’s stares on him, Alex pulls out a battered piece of paper.

“On three then?” he says with false bravado and Raven nods.

They all count, all six of them, and Raven and Alex flip their papers over at the same moment.

“That’s Erik.” Angel breathes.

“He’s standing,” is Sean’s reaction. His voice is choked. “I’ve never seen Dad stand before.”

“He looks so happy.” Raven says, voice soft.

“So does Erik.” Darwin responds.

“It’s kind of. . .” Alex trails off, not sure of the word.

“Creepy.” Angel finishes, and they all laugh.

“It’s the same photo.” Hanks says after a minute. “Look how they’re standing.”

The edges don’t line up quite right with their two copies, but it’s obvious anyway. Charles has his arm around Erik’s waist, Erik’s is around Charles’ shoulder and they’re both beaming, looking so very happy.

“So.” Alex says. “What the hell do we do now?”

Raven scoffs at him. “We fix it, obviously.”

“Fix what? Maybe they split up for a reason.”

“Maybe it was a stupid reason and they both regret it! Look how happy they are in this picture.” Raven snaps back. “Dad is always sad when he talks about Erik. He’s probably heart-broken.”

“Do you think so?” Angel asks, eyes bright.

“I bet he is. You don’t adopt kids with someone your not crazy about. And Sean and I were adopted almost three years apart, so they were together at least that long.”

“It’s so sad!” Angel adds. Hank and Alex exchange a look.

“So what do we do?” Sean asks.

They’re all quiet for a long time and it’s Hank who finally speaks first.

“I think we should switch places. I’ve always wanted to meet the Erik Dad talked about, that advice got me through some hard times. And now that he’s kind of our other dad. . .”

“And!” Angel says excitedly. “And if we switched places, they’d have to switch us back! And then they would see each other again.”

They’re beaming at each other, and Raven and Sean look equally excited.

“This is the worst idea ever.” Alex mutters to himself. He just wish that meant he didn’t want to do it anyway.

 

\--

 

They’re all lying in the middle of the cabin. It’s a particularly hot day and they’ve all dragged their mattresses to the center of the room so they can lie down in comfort. They’ve been trading stories of their families all day, about the planes that Erik works on and the wheelchair basketball that Charles plays every two weeks.

“Charles Xavier.” Darwin says experimentally, rolling the name around in his mouth like he’s trying to figure something out. “Where have I heard that before?”

“Probably just a memory.” Alex says dismissively. He’s lying next to Hank, their shoulders brushing every time he moves, distracting him.

“That’s not it. It’s more like something I’ve seen or read. Charles Xavier.” he repeats slowly. “Hang on! Didn’t you say he was a geneticist?”

“Yeah. He’s a professor of genetics and psychology.”

“Has he ever published any books?”

“A couple. Why?”

“Erik has one of his books. He keeps it on his bedside table. I always thought he read it, you know, to fall asleep. He’s never really been interested in genetics, so I thought it was weird. It’s called ‘Mutant and Proud.’”

“That’s one of Dad’s first books. I think he wrote most of it in the hospital, after his accident.”

“There, you see!” Raven says, whirling to face Alex.

“What?”

“He keeps Dads’, my Dad’s, book on his bedside table! That doesn’t sound like someone who’s moved on to me!”

“I didn’t say he had! I just don’t think this is the best plan.”

“Don’t you want them to be happy?” she demands.

“Of course I do! But this is a crazy plan! What do you think they’ll do when three strangers turn up on their doorsteps? What if they split up for a good reason?”

“I don’t think you get it. How sad Charles is. It’s like he’s lost something. He loves us more than anything, but there’s always something missing. I know he loved all of you. That’s just how he is.”

In the face of her fervor, Alex subsides into a grumpy silence.

Angel finds him later, while Darwin and the three Xaviers are busy figuring out how they’re going to get to the right place.

“I know you don’t like this plan, but I think it could really work.” she begins, nudging his feet aside as she sits down on his bunk. “You know that Erik gets lonely sometimes. It’s not as if we’re leaving the country or anything.” She waits expectantly for Alex to say something but he just stares at the wall.

“Fine.” she says, standing. “Be that way. You can go back to California with the Xaviers. I want to meet Charles, and I know Darwin can still remember him. I want to be with you on this, but I need to do this. I’m sorry.”

She pats his knee softly and walks away.

\--

“Why do you want to meet Erik?”

Hank looks up from his book in surprise. Alex is standing in front to him, blue eyes intense.

“Excuse me?”

“This crazy plan, I’d have thought you were too sensible for it. Why is this so important to you?”

Hank thinks about if for a long minute, eyes flicking from Angel, who is definitely watching them from under her blanket, to the bunk above him where he he’s willing to bet any amount of money that Raven is eavesdropping as hard as she can. “Let’s go outside and we’ll talk.”

They sit down on the top step. Alex draws his knees up to his chest and wraps his arms around himself. Hank feels his heart clench at the vulnerability of the movement.

“So.” Alex prompts after a moment. “Why is this such a big deal to you?”

“Well, part of it is about Dad. It’s like Raven said, there’s always this feeling like he’s missing something.”

“Is it, could it just be that, you know, he’s in a wheelchair?” Alex asks, hoping that won’t end with one of Hank’s vicious right hooks. But Hank thinks it over and answers carefully.

“I don’t think it is. We’ve seen him get upset over that, get angry and frustrated, even when he tries to hide it. But we always know that’s what it’s about. This other thing, it’s always there. Sometimes it’s just. . . less. I want him to be happy.”

“And the rest of it?”

“What?”

“You said that was only part of it. What’s the rest of it?”

“I want to meet Erik. You don’t get how amazing Dad is. He’s so smart, he raised all three of us by himself, even with the wheelchair. And Erik was always this person he talked about, this silent presence. Someone who’s that amazing to someone like Dad- they’re worth meeting. And, some of the things Dad told me, they helped a lot.”

“You said that something Erik once said got you through a hard time. The thing about accepting yourself. Erik used to say it to me too. What did it help you with?”

Hank is silent for a long minute, studying Alex from behind his glasses and Alex wonders what it is he sees. He almost thinks Hank won’t answer, but he does, looking out at the woods.

“I’m gay. It’s what Dad told me when I came out.”

Alex swallows. Twice. He tries to speak, chokes, coughs, and tries again. Hank is watching him with a mixture of incredulity and concern. “I am too,” he admits quietly. “That’s when Dad told me he used to be with a man. Charles, I guess.” He raises his gaze to meet Hank’s. “Do you really think we could help them?”

Hank smiles, and Alex’s heart actually fucking skips a beat at the sight. “Yeah, I do.”

Alex takes a deep breath. “Ok. I’m in.”

\--

The end of camp came quickly. They snuck into Gabrielle’s office to change their tickets around and talked about their plans. They decided to switch back in two months, unless something went wrong and they had to switch sooner.

The last night, they all gather around the campfire with the rest of the camp. Hank notices with amusement that Bobby and Raven’s friend Marie are holding hands.

Gabrielle leads them in singing ‘Lean On Me’ and gives a speech about seeing each other next year and not being too sad about leaving.

While the mood at the beginning of the campfire is as joyous and festive as all the others had been, it’s somber and quiet when they all leave and none of them talk much as they get into bed.

The next morning is chaos. All six of them pile into the bus going to the airport, along with John, Logan and Kitty, who also live too far for the usual camp bus to take them back.

The plane for New York leaves first, so they all wait at a cafe close to the Gate.

“Just remember, you go down to the lower level and get a cab, because Dad has a business meeting. Do you still have the address? I can write it down again, if you’d like.” Darwin asks.

Alex snorts. “Let it go, Darwin. They’ll be fine. It’s California, not the Bronx. You should be more worried about us, we’re the ones going to New York.”

Hank rolls his eyes, “For the hundredth time, you’re going to New York State, not New York City. The mansion is in the middle of nowhere.”

“Charles will be there to pick us up. You’ll have to go up to him. Be polite, and don’t stare at his wheelchair.” Raven reminds them.

“Hang on.” Alex says suddenly. “How can he drive?”

Raven gives him a dirty look. “There’s gas and break control on the steering wheel. Don’t ask stuff like that either.”

Hank puts a hand on her arm. “Dad is a big boy, Raven. I think he can handle it.”

“I know, it’s just... What if this isn’t such a good idea.”

“It was yours!” Alex says angrily.

“She just worries.” Sean confides. “You’ll be fine.”

The announcer above them goes off; the flight to New York is boarding.

“Look after Charles for us, will you?” Raven asks.

Darwin gives her what Alex calls his ‘big brother grin’ “Of course we will. Look after Erik for us?”

Raven smiles back tremulously. “Of course.”

Hank gives Alex a little push. “You should go. That’s you boarding now.”

Alex look at him, at his thick glasses, his stupid shirt that’s tucked into his khakis and thinks ‘Fuck it.’

He grabs Hank’s arm and tugs so that Hank stumbles, unbalanced. Without pausing to think about it, Alex presses him lips to Hanks, just for a second.

“Good luck, Beast.” he mutters, then walks away.

“Hey, what, wait! Alex!” he hears Hank call after him, but he doesn’t look back.

Angel and Darwin caught up with him at the entrance to the gate.

“Way to go, bro!” Angel grins and Alex tries to suppress a smile. It doesn’t work very well.

\--

Hank stands, staring after Alex for several long minutes, reaching up to slowly touch his lips. Raven gives a little wolf-whistle and Hank blushes hotly.

“Come on,” he mutters, pushing past a grinning Raven “We should get to our gate.”

As they walk away, he hears Sean ask Raven “Does this mean that Hank has a boyfriend?”

His face gets even hotter and he speeds up before he can hear her answer.  
\--


	2. Chapter 2

Erik Lehnsherr is not the sort of man who likes surprises. So he is not in the least bit pleased when the doorbell rings and instead of the three children he was expecting, there are three complete strangers standing on his door front.

They’re all carrying suitcases and Erik feels a moment of panic that three orphans have shown up on his doorstep, needing a place to stay and what will he do if that’s the case?

“Who the hell are you?” he demands, not in a mood to be patient because his own children should have been home hours ago. They should have been there when he got back from his meeting and their absence is making worry crawl up his spine.

The red-head looks familiar, something in the color of his hair and the shape of his eyes that reminds him of someone from a long distant memory. All three of them look nervous and exchange pointed looks before the boy with glasses, clearly the oldest, straightens his shoulders and sticks out his hand.

“My name is Hank Xavier. We, the three of us, we’re your kids. Sort of. It’s just, we met your actual, um? other? kids at Camp. They’re fine! They’re just, in New York.”

The blonde, Raven, it must be Raven, god she’s gotten big, puts her hand on Hank’s arm, stopping his babble.

“I’m Raven.” Her hair is darker than the white-blonde it had been when he’d seen her last, but there’s still that subtle attitude in her stance and he can see that little four-year old who said No to everything.

He’s still staring at them, the door open behind him and they’re all uncertain. The youngest steps forward and holds out a hand with all the bravado of his eleven years.

“I’m-”

But Erik, suddenly able to speak, cuts him off. “Banshee.” he breathes, ignoring the outstretched hand and pulling Sean into a hug.

“You do remember.” Raven says, sounding so relieved that Erik is startled. How could he forget them? He lifts his head to look at her, and lifts one arm to include her in the hug. She makes a choked little noise and flings herself into the hug.

Hank stands there, looking awkward and uncertain until Raven grabs his arm and pulls him close.

They stand there for a minute before Erik straightens, trying very hard to pretend he isn’t overwhelmed by this new development. He has to clear his throat twice, but he manages to invite them all inside without making a complete idiot of himself.

\--

“This the worst idea ever.” Alex mutters to himself as they step off the plane, shaking his hands to try and relieve the nervous tension building up inside him. Angel grabs one of them.

“Calm down, dude. It’ll be fine.” She sounds just as nervous as he feels.

“I think that’s him.” Darwin says, pointing. The man in the wheelchair is facing away from them, but it looks like his hair is the same as in the photos the others had shown them.

“How many men in wheelchairs can there be?” Alex asks scornfully and Angel smacks him.

Heart beating furiously (and arm throbbing just a bit) Alex strides over to the man, Darwin and Angel right behind him.

“Um. Excuse me?” Alex says, but the man doesn’t turn around. “Mr. Xavier?” he tries again, belatedly remembering Raven’s words not to stand directly behind Charles and taking a large step to his left so that Charles won’t have to turn so far to see him.

“Yes?” Charles says, turning his wheelchair to Alex and looking surprised. “Do I know you?”

Alex nods dumbly. Charles furrows his brows, looking confused. “You’re too young to be one of my students. Are you one of Hank’s friends?”

Alex chokes a little at that and he can vaguely hear Angel snort. Fortunately Darwin steps forward.

“Sort of. All three of us,” he gestures at Angel, “Well. um.” he falters, uncertain.

Charles seems to understand, somehow. His eyes flick between the three of them, before coming back to rest on Darwin.

“I, it can’t be,” he whispers.

Alex spreads his hands wide and shrugs.

“How can you be here?”

“We met Hank and Raven and Sean at camp. Darwin could sort of remember you and we just sort of figured it out.”

“You figured it out. Of course you did.” Charles looks a bit stunned and Alex shifts his weight from side to side, waiting for Charles to demand for his own children back and hadn’t Alex always said this was a bad idea?

Charles seems to realize that they’re all waiting for some sort of reaction. “I’m glad you’re here though,” he ducks his head “So glad. I can’t even tell you. I’ve always wondered. You’re so tall.”

Angel takes a hesitant step forward. “Can I hug you?”

“God, yes, of course.” Charles says, opening his arms. “You don’t need to ask, it’s fine, it’s always fine.”

Angel leans down to hug him, letting Charles fold his arms around her. She’s bent almost in half and one of the arms of chair is digging into her stomach and she can’t bring herself to care.

“It’s so wonderful to see you.” Charles murmurs into her hair. Watching them, Alex thinks that maybe this isn’t as bad of an idea as he thought.

\--

“I’ll have to call Charles, you know.” Erik says, after they’ve all settled in the living room.

“Darwin said you’d say that. I have the number here. You should probably wait for him to call you though. The others won’t be there for another two hours and it’s at least an hour drive to the mansion.”

“The mansion? I thought Charles was planning to move you three back to London, teach at Oxford.”

Hank and Raven exchange nervous looks. “I think that was the plan for awhile but he changed his mind.” Hank says hesitantly. Charles had never said as much, but they all three knew he had stayed because of the accident.

None of them were sure whether or not Erik knew about what had happened, and none of them wanted to be the ones who said something in case he didn’t. And, if they were perfectly honest about it, none of them wanted to know that Erik had known and had left Charles anyway; alone with two toddlers and a baby.

“So he’s still in New York.” Erik says slowly, mulling it over.

“Look. Erik.” Raven interjects. “I know you probably want to see your kids again, but if we could just wait a month or so to switch back, that’d be really great. It’s just that Charles talks about you a lot and-”

“What?” Erik snaps, clearly startled.

Raven flushes. “He just mentions you, is all. So we all really want to get to know you. And I’m sure that Charles will want to know the others. He loves everyone, you see, and I think he’s always missed them.”

“Yes,” Erik says absently, “Yes, that sounds like him.”

The three of them exchange a look at that.

“So, is that a yes?” Hank asks hesitantly.

“Yes.” Erik blurts. “That would be, that would be great. You’re ok with sleeping in the others’ rooms?”

“Yes, we planned all that out.”

“Yeah, Hank’s going to sleep in Alex’s room.” Raven laughs, nudging him and Hank goes a brilliant shade of red.

Erik raises an eyebrow but doesn’t comment. “How did you six even meet anyway?”

“Well, I guess you and Charles must still think alike, because you sent us to the same camp.”

“And you, what, figured out you were long lost foster-siblings at first glance?”

Sean laughs. “God no, Hank and Alex hated each other at first glance.”

“Really?” Erik says, looking Hank over and trying not to raise his eyebrows again, because Hank was definitely Alex’s type. Which, knowing Alex, may have been part of the problem. “And then what?”

Grinning, Sean launches into the tale of how their prank war had unfolded, waving his hands and ignoring all of Hank’s attempts to interject with his own side of the story.

\--

The ride to the Mansion was long, but not as awkward as Alex had feared it would be. Charles is chatty, nervously so, but Alex is pretty nervous himself, so he didn’t mind. It saves him from the stiff silence he had feared. Erik wasn’t very talkative at the best of times, and he tended to clam up when he got anxious.

About half-way through the trip, Alex notices that Charles was shooting him side looks in the rear view mirror.

“What’s up?”

“I’m sorry, but, why is your hair pink?” Charles asks hesitantly.

Angel bursts into giggles that she made no effort to hide as Alex sulks farther down in the backseat. “It’s all Hank’s fault.” he grumbles.

“Hank? Really? That doesn’t seem like him.”

“Oh, believe me, Professor, he’s vicious when he wants to be.” Alex laughs.

Charles shoots him an amused look through the rear-view mirror. “You don’t sound very upset about it.”

“I can be pretty vicious too.”

Charles laughs delightedly. “That doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.”

“Hey!” Alex protests as the others laugh.

They spent most of the drive telling Charles about their time at camp. Charles seems to enjoy the stories and to be genuinely happy to see the three of them, which went a long way to soothing Alex’s high-strung nerves.

They could see the mansion almost five minutes before they actually reached it.

“You actually live there?” Angel exclaims. “That’s a castle.’

Charles chuckles. “Not quite, but it is quite large. You’ll have be careful not to get lost for the first couple of days.”

Alex and Angel both tumble out of the car as soon as it stopped, running up to the house and doing a quick examination of the grounds.

“Is that a pool?” Angel calls from where she had disappeared behind the house.

Darwin, however, hovers nervously as Charles calmly gets his wheelchair out of where he had stowed it for the drive and waited to see if Charles needed any help. Charles moves in such a quick and matter of fact manner that Darwin was almost surprised- he had somehow been expecting more fanfare, more, well, weakness.

Charles appears not to notice his anxiety though, and wheeled straight up the ramp that had clearly been added to the original design of the house. “Don’t you want to see the inside?” he calls to Angel and Alex, who rush to follow him.

The door swing open easily, but instead of rushing in, the three children let Charles lead the way in.

“Charles?” A voice calls from deeper in the house. “Is that you? Are the kids back?”

Charles shoots the three of them an amused look. “Something like that. Why don’t you come see for yourself?” Charles looks excited, likes he’s anticipating a good joke and Alex can’t even feel nervous as he hears the low click of heels on wood.

“What does that mean? Did Raven cut her hair again?”

A woman with dark hair who Alex recognises as Moira from Sean’s pictures steps through the doorway, absently wiping her hands on a dishtowel. She freezes at the sight of them and Alex is hard pressed not to burst into laughter at the look on Charles’ face. Now, at least, he knows where the Xavier children got their flair for pranks.

“Well.” Moira says after a long minute. “Either the three of you got extensive plastic surgery, or Charles came home with the wrong kids.”

“Not the wrong ones, Moira. Just different ones.”

Moira makes a little gasp. “You mean?”

Charles nods. “Moira, this is Darwin, Alex and Angel. My other children.” Alex feels a frisson of happiness go through him at the words and tries not to let it show on his face. “Children. This is Moira, our housekeeper. Without her, I’d probably be bald.”

Moira laughs a little and holds out her arms. “Well, come on then. You must be hungry. I made soup.”

They all look at Charles, who nods for them to follow her. “I should go call Erik. I need tell you him you’re all here, and make sure the others are alright.” He sounds like he’s talking to himself as much as the kids, and he’s playing nervously with his left wheel, making the wheelchair spin in place a little.

“I have the number.” Darwin offers, but Charles shakes his head with a self-deprecating smile.

“No, that’s quite alright. You go have your soup. I’ll just go,” he takes a deep breath. “Call Erik. Jesus.”

Moira looks concerned. “I’ll bring you in some tea.” She promises and that, at least, gets a little laugh from Charles.

“Thank you, Moira. I’ll be in my study.”

\--

Charles takes a deep breath before picking up the phone and slowly dialing Erik’s number. He has to try three times before he can dial the final number. His hands shake and his eyes keep flicking to the chairs where they used to sit, the chess board between them, talking about anything and everything.

The phone rings once and Charles, out of pure reflex, slams the phone back onto the receiver. He drops his head into his hands, taking deep breaths. Erik always had this effect on him, making him lightheaded and dizzy, unable to think clearly.

Taking another deep breath, he tells himself to man up and dials the number before he can think about it.

“Hello?” A deep baritone responds and Charles almost slams the receiver down again.

“Erik?” he asks, then winces, expecting laughter because of course it is, who else would it be.

“Charles?” And god, he hopes he’s not imagining the hesitant note in Erik’s voice, though it is so unlike him. In the background, he hears Raven yell.

“Hey Dad!” He smiles in spite of himself.

“It seems that Raven, at least, has made it to California in one piece,” he says.

“The others are fine too.” Erik replies, and Charles can hear a certain softness in his voice. He has to close his eyes against the memories it invokes and remind himself it’s for the children, not for him. Not anymore. “They’re a bit noisy though.” The last bit is said louder and Charles can just picture Erik turning his head over his shoulder to address the kids as he says it.

“I can’t imagine where they got that from.” Charles says demurely and Erik snorts.

“No, of course not.” Erik’s voice is warm and god, he’s getting lightheaded all over again. “I assume, that my three reached you just fine? I can’t imagine why else you would call.” There’s a hint of coldness in his voice and Charles has to bite him lip from revealing how many times he has dialed Erik’s number, how many times he can’t bring himself to finish the call. From how much he still misses Erik.

“Yes, they’re here. They’re,” ‘Just like you,’ he thinks, “Wonderful.”

The smile is back in Erik’s voice when he replies “Yes, they are.”

“Look, Erik. I know that we should switch them back soon, but can we just wait another couple of weeks. It’s just- I’ve missed them so much and-”

“Charles.” Erik cuts him off and Charles tries to pretend like it doesn’t make his breath catch at the sound of his name and he had thought he would never hear it again. “You don’t have to explain yourself to me. I want them to stay longer. And I’m sure, since they went to the trouble of concocting this scheme, they won’t mind either.”

“I suppose not.”

“So, I hear that you’re back in New York.”

The question is implied, because Charles had always been clear on his desire to move back to England, but he just says “Yes,” and leaves it at that.

There’s an awkward pause before Erik says “I can’t believe they switched places on us,” with a hint of incredulous laugh in his voice and Charles can’t help the grin that spreads across his face.

“I know! I’m sure it was entirely Raven’s fault. She’s so impulsive.”

“That hasn’t changed then,” Erik says softly, and of course he remembers, Raven was their first, theirs for four wonderful, chaotic years.

“No, it hasn’t,” Charles replies, equally soft.

“I’m glad they did it though,” Erik admits and Charles has to close his eyes again.

“So am I,” and it feels like a confession. ‘It let me to talk to you again.’ He doesn’t say, and he hangs up before it can slip out.

\--

“They were talking for awhile. That’s good, right?” Sean whispers later that night. They’re clustered in front of the bathroom.

“I think so.” Raven says thoughtfully. “I just wish we could have heard more of the conversation.”

“Maybe if someone hadn’t yelled at the phone.” Hank says, glaring at Raven pointedly.

She shrugs. “I figured it would help Dad. You know how he gets sometimes.”

They fell quiet- they all knew how Charles could get, how sometimes he would be distant, or how, when one of them was gone for too long, Charles would act like their return was the greatest gift he could have received.

“So, tomorrow, we initiate plan Alpha?” Raven asks, breaking the tension.

Hank gives her an incredulous look. “There is no Plan Alpha. What are you talking about?”

Raven rolls her eyes. “Tomorrow, we need to ask Erik how he and Charles met. Duh!”

“Oh, so sorry. I wasn’t aware we had code names for it now.”

They all fall silent at the sound of footsteps on the stairs and Erik comes into sight.

He raises an eyebrow as he sees them gathered around the bathroom door, Raven with her face wash Hank clutching a toothbrush, Sean in his pajamas and none of them making any attempt to enter the empty bathroom.

Slowly, he walks past them without saying a word, their eyes slowly following him as he passes.

As soon as he’s gone around the corner, Hank shoves Raven playfully. “Great spy stuff there, ace.”

\--

Hank wakes up the next morning to find dawn light is barely filtering through the windows. He debates going back to sleep for a long minute; the bed is large and fluffy and smells fantastic, but the rumble of his stomach belays that plan.

He has to fumble for his glasses, Alex’s bedside table (holding only an alarm crack with a cracked screen and a lamp shaped like a car) is on the left instead of the right.

Hank takes a coupe minutes to peer interestedly at Alex’s things, mostly because he’s not sure if Erik would take kindly to Hank wandering around the rest of the house at the crack of dawn. Alex has a couple of baseball trophies along the back wall along with a picture of what must be his baseball team.

His stomach makes a loud sound and Hank signs and hopes that Erik won’t be mad as he slips out of the room. He thinks about checking if Sean is awake, since the two of them had always been the early risers of the Xavier family, but he decides against it. If Sean wakes up, he’ll head straight for the kitchen regardless.

Absently, Hank wonders if Erik has a gym he could use- it was where he usually spent his mornings at the mansion.

Erik’s kitchen isn’t as big as the one he’s used to, but it’s nice. The counters are all stainless steel and Hank spares a brief moment to worry about what the kitchen must look like when the sun comes through the windows.

The first cabinet he tries is full of spices, the second is plates and glasses. The third looks like flours and sugars and he resolves to make a cake later in the week, if there’s time.

Finally, he finds a large pantry that has a decently full box of Kellogs. The milk in the fridge is whole, not the 2% Charles has always used, but since it’s just going into the cereal he hopes it won’t matter.

He pours himself a bowl as quietly as possible and takes a seat at the island bar. The chairs are high enough that even his long legs don’t touch the ground and he finds himself missing the low, intimate breakfast table at home. In the pre-dawn light, this stainless steel counter and thin metal chairs seemed cold and unwelcoming.

To Hank’s surprise, Erik comes into the kitchen half-way through his second bowl of cereal. It hadn’t occurred to him that Erik might not be as late a riser as Charles was, it had never come up in their fact-exchanges at camp.

“Morning.” he says, when Erik goes straight to the fridge without appearing to have seen him.

Erik straightens immediately, looking surprised to see him. “Good morning. You’re up early.”

Hank shrugs. “I usually am. Sean will probably be awake soon too.”

Erik’s mouth twitches. “I thought he would grow out of that.”

Hank grins back, because one of his earliest memories is being woken up by Sean’s early morning wails. “Apparently not.”

“Charles must love that.” Erik says and Hank snorts.

“He usually gets Moira to deal with us.”

Erik’s grin falters slightly and he turns to the fridge in a swift move, yanking it open with more force than Hank thought was strictly necessary.

“Is Raven an early riser as well?” Erik asks the fridge.

Hank swallows his bite of cereal hastily. “She’s even worse than Charles.”

Erik is saved from having to reply by Sean’s arrival into the kitchen. He doesn’t say anything, just drops into the chair next to Hank, pulling Hank’s bowl in front of himself and taking Hank’s spoon directly out of his hand.

Hank, used to such antics, just gets up to get himself a second bowl and spoon.

“He does that often?” Erik asks.

“He’s an early riser. That doesn't make him a morning person.” Hank replies. It’s a common joke of theirs. “Usually I’m better prepared.”

“Right.” Erik, apparently deciding not to comment, just shakes his head. “You guys want eggs?”

Hank nods, but Sean, who had apparently been looking forward to a vacation from their usual health food routine, shakes his head no.

Hank is about to lecture him on being a decent guest when Erik stops him.

“Why don’t you see how I make it first, than reject it?”

Sean agrees, but he doesn’t look pleased about it.

The eggs are entirely unlike anything Moira has ever made for them, and even Sean digs into them with gusto. Erik watches with evident amusement as Sean shovels them into his mouth. Hank mostly just tries not to bury his head in his arms in embarrassment.

The sun has come up and is flooding the kitchen with a warm light, making the cool metal glow luminescent and Hank feels much better than when he woke up.

“You should probably go wake Raven up soon.” Erik says after awhile, “There’s someone I want you three to meet, and she’ll probably be here soon.”

“She?” Sean mouths to Hank, because Darwin defiantly hadn’t mentioned any women in his ‘People You’ll Need To Know’ break down. Hank shrugs, deciding not to worry until they had reason to.

\--

When they see the blonde woman hanging on Erik’s arm and wearing a low cut white tank top, Hank think, yeah, maybe it’s not a bad time to worry.

Raven, standing on his left side, stiffens immediately and Hank recognises it as her ‘danger’ pose. (The last time he’d seen it was at a book signing, when a vindictive guest had called Charles a cripple. Raven had kicked him in the nuts and had to be escorted out by security.)

“Guys, this is Emma Frost.” Erik introduces and Raven shoots Hank a look that says ‘memorize that name, because you’ll be looking it up in whatever government data bank you can hack into.’ Hank hates that look.

“Emma, these are my children.” Hank feels a rush of pleasure at the introduction, despite knowing that Emma herself is bad, bad news.

“Well, aren’t they precious.” Emma says in a complete monotone. Raven glares at her. “You must be Angel.” Emma says to her, ignoring the way Raven was trying to set her on fire with her eyes.

Erik coughs. “Actually, these are a different three children. It seems that the ones I told you about have gone away to New York and switched places with these three.”

Emma freezes, every muscle going suddenly still. “You have six children? And you didn’t mention this before?”

Erik shrugs. “It didn’t come up. I thought that these three were living in London.”

“We were staying with our other Dad!” Sean chirps in cheerfully and Hank kind of wants to hug him.

Emma turns to Erik slowly. “Their what?”

Erik puts his hands on her shoulders. “Emma, you know I’m bi. I haven’t seen their father in a very long time. I’ve moved on. I’m with you now. Now, is this going to be a problem?”

If he were fixed with the intense, direct gaze that Erik is giving Emma now, Hank is pretty sure he wouldn’t admit a problem even if he had one, and it seems Emma feels the same way. She gives a luminescent smile. “Of course not. I was just surprised. Six is an awfully big number!” She sounds cheerful, but Hank can see the icy glare she shoots the three of them.

Slowly, she reaches up to put a hand on Erik’s cheek and pull him into a deep kiss. Sean makes a disgusted face and Hank sympathises completely.

This is trouble.

\--

Alex is sitting on Hank’s bed in the Xavier house (not at all like a teenage girl, no matter what Angel says) running his fingers over the spines of books and not really thinking about anything in particular when his phone goes off. It’s playing Taylor Swifts ‘You Belong With Me’ and he swears an instant but painful death on Angel when he sees that it’s Hank calling.

“Hello?” he answers, trying to sound sure and confident and not at all like he had been snooping through Hank’s stuff.

“Alex?” And yep, that was definitely Hank. Fuck.

“Hey, Beast. What’s up?”

He hears Hank make a disdainful little sound at the nickname but, for once, Hank doesn’t comment (Alex isn’t disappointed at all.) “We have a problem. A big problem.”

It’s really through a super-human strength of will that Alex’s reply is not ‘Is it in your pants?’ “What’s the matter?”

“I think we may need to meet up sooner than planned.”

“What? No!” Because maybe Alex has only been here for a day and a half, but he already loves Charles with an intensity that scares him. It’s something about the way Charles looks at all of them, like they’re all he could have dreamed they were and more, like he never wants to let them leave. “Is it a problem with Erik? Because he seems tough, but he really is amazing and I know he does, you know,” he falters, not wanting to say the incredibly girly things he’s thinking “Love you and shit.” he finishes in a rush.

“No, that’s not the problem.”

“Is it the weather? Because Northern California is always like that, we tried to warn you. Just get a sweater or something.”

“Alex, no, shut up! Erik has a girlfriend.”

Alex snorts. “Yeah, right. Erik doesn’t have girlfriends. I’ve never even seen him on a date before.”

“Well, he’s dating this one. They keep kissing and touching and stuff. It’s really gross.” There’s a pause and Hank adds in a tone of deep confidentiality “I heard him tell her that he had a space she needed to fill.”

Alex makes a disgusted face at the phone and nearly gags. “Is that a euphemism?” he asks, horrified.

“What? No! Get your mind out of the gutter! This is a serious issue!”

“Look, you’re the child prodigy, you figure it out. We don’t want to switch back yet.”

He hears Hank sigh heavily into the phone. “Fine. We’ll do what we can. And Alex?”

“Yeah?”

“Your bed is really comfy.” Hank hangs up directly after that, leaving Alex to stare at the phone.

“Touche, Bozo, touche.”

\--

Despite his initial dismissal of the problem, Alex can't help dwelling on Hank's words. Erik, dating? Well, he had gone on dates before, but nothing that Alex would called 'dating' and he had certainly never introduced any of them to his kids (some of them had tried to introduce themselves, standing in the kitchen in Erik's shirt, getting orange juice when Alex woke up in the morning.)

It was worrisome. He ends up mentioning the conversation to the others later that night, and once they'd gotten over their teasing that Hank had been the one to call Alex (and did that make Alex the girl in the scenario) they were also a bit concerned.

"I think that we should move up our schedule." Darwin says, and Angel makes a distressed face.

"But I like Charles!" They had spent most of the day in New York city, where Charles had spoiled them unabashedly and Angel was still wearing her new heels, even though it was almost nine at night.

"I'm not saying we should all leave. We just need to start asking about what happened between them sooner than we planned. And, if our plan goes right, we won’t have to say goodbye to Charles at all." He looks concerned "Did Hank say how it was going with Erik?"

"I'm pretty sure they like Erik, that's not the problem. The problem is Emma."

Angel, who had been lounging on the bed, sits up straight. "Emma? As in, Emma Frost?"

"You know her?" Alex asks incredulously.

"No. Sort of. Here, let me -" Angel jumps off the bed and ran out of the room without finishing her thought.

Alex looks at Darwin, who shrugs.

"Here it is!" Angel rushes back in, moving much more quickly in her heels than Alex would have thought possible. (Was she ever going to take them off?) In her hands, she held an old issue one of her celebrity magazines. Alex recognizes it as one of the ones she'd had at camp.

"What?"

Angel starts to flip through the magazine as she explains “She's a model. She used to date Sebastian Shaw. Here." She holds up the page, where a tall blonde woman stood in a white bra, white underwear and a cape. Alex would never understand the fashion world.

"I think she works for Victoria Secret. There's an article about her later in the magazine." She flips through again, finding the article, and this time Emma Frost was wearing a little more, but not much. "Sebastian Shaw was a weapons maker, but his company just went under, they couldn't compete with Stark Industries."

"And now she's dating Erik."

"So, basically, she's a gold-digging bitch."

"Yeah, that about covers it." Angel confirms.

"But, but," Alex flounders for a minute "Erik isn't stupid. Why would he date her if she's so horrible?"

"Maybe she isn't horrible to him." Angel suggests. Darwin took the magazine from her hands and held it up in front of him, studying it.

"And she is pretty hot." Darwin says, which earned him a smack from Angel.

"So, what should we do?" Alex asks.

"Work harder."

\--

"So, what do you think of Emma?" Erik asks after she left. She had stayed for the day and dinner, which had been a particularly painful experience for everyone. Emma had been condescendingly polite to the three of them while hanging all over Erik, putting her long, perfectly manicured fingers on his arm whenever he wasn't eating.

The three of them exchanged a look, uncertain how lenient Erik would be wit their true opinion.

"She was. . . nice." Han says tactfully after a minute and Erik gives him a little smile that, while not worth the lie, certainly made it more bearable.

"I'm glad you think so. She may be around a bit more often. She's never spent much time around children," Raven gives a little snort at that, but Erik ignores her, "So she'll need time to adjust, I'd like you to be patient with her. She is trying.”

‘Yeah’ Hank thinks disdainfully ‘Trying to get your money, maybe.’

“This is a problem.” Raven announces later, perched on the edge of Alex’s bed.

“Really? You think so?” Sean says sarcastically.

“I talked to Alex yesterday.”

“Oh, did you now?” Raven asks archly and Hank shoves her.

“He said he doesn’t want to switch back.”

“Well, of course not. I don’t want to either. We just got here.”

“It’s not that I don’t like Erik. I just think we need backup. And it wouldn’t hurt to have the two of them meet-up sooner.”

“No.” Sean says quietly, and they both turn to look at him, surprised. “We need to find out what happened first. Besides,” he grins broadly “I think we can handle one woman on our own.”

Raven and Hank laugh. “You’re right. Are we Xaviers or aren’t we?” Hank asks.

“Misfit toys forever!” Raven grins.

\--

The next morning, Erik finds Hank running laps around the house. Erik is leaning against the porch when Hank goes by on his third lap.

Catching sight of him, Hank slows to a stop. “Did you need something?” he asks, jogging closer to where Erik was standing.

“Just watching. I wouldn’t have expected you to be a runner.”

Hank shrugs. “Most people don’t. Dad was always pretty insistent on exercise.”

Erik smiles slightly. “Yeah, that sounds like him. Does he run with you? He always liked to run in the mornings too.”

Hank shuffles awkwardly. “Um, no. He doesn’t really run much anymore.” Any doubts he’d had about whether or not Erik knew about Charles’ accident vanished and he couldn’t help but feel relieved.

Erik looks surprised. “Really?”

Hank shrugs again, not sure what else to say. He thinks about mentioning that Emma seems like a bitch, but he doesn’t think that will help much.

“How did you and Charles meet?” he asks instead, since they’re on the topic already.

Erik frowns thoughtfully. It makes him looks a bit scary, but one thing that Darwin, Alex and Angel had tried to impress upon them more than anything else was that, while Erik could be intimidating and bore an unsettling resemblance to a shark, he was not a scary person and would never hurt them.

“We met on a ocean liner from London to New York. I knew I’d be doing a lot of flying soon and wanted to enjoy the option of not doing so. And Charles didn’t like to fly,” he shoots Hank a little look as he says this and Hank nods.

“He still doesn’t.” In fact, Hank is willing to bet that he likes it even less now, when his wheelchair makes everything more difficult (there was one incident with airport security that Hank still shudders to think about.)

Erik nods like this is confirming something important. “That’s pretty much it. We met playing poker. Charles was the only one who ever beat me. It was like he could read minds.”

Hank snorts, because apparently that hasn’t changed either. “He taught the three of us to play too,” he grins. “We played a lot with the other three”

“Who won?”

Hank abruptly remembers jumping into the lake, completely naked, with Alex’s eyes on him like a brand and he flushes hotly. “No one, really,” he blurts awkwardly. Erik looks amused. “What else?”

It’s Erik’s turn to shrug, turning to look out over the yard. “That’s pretty much it,” his face is closed and Hank doesn’t try to get any more out of him. It was a start.

\--

“Is it just me, or did you expect Charles to be more, I dunno, messed up?” Angel whispers the next morning. They’re all in one the guest bedrooms where she’d dragged all of them to have a meeting before Charles woke up.

“What, because of the wheelchair?” Alex said “He’s still a person, Angel. Jeez!” Angel pushes him off the bed.

“No, I mean, Erik left him, didn’t he? I thought once we got here we’d be able to tell why. But he seems nice.”

“Yeah, but you’re not sleeping with him.” Alex replies, and Angel makes a disgusted face.

“Maybe he has some deep, dark secret.” Darwin suggests.

“Yeah, maybe he makes ritual sacrifices.”Alex says sarcastically. “Really guys? He seems like a normal guy.”

“There has to be some reason.” Angel protests.

“Yeah, maybe they both have a temper and things got out of hand and Erik left.”

Angel shrugs.

“You’re forgetting, they were also together for at least three years.” Darwin points out. “And that’s assuming they adopted Raven as soon as they got together, which seems unlikely to me.”

“Maybe,” Angel whispers, sounding uncertain and nervous, “Do you think he left Charles because of, you know.” she makes a gesture towards her legs that Alex assumes is meant to indicate his wheelchair.

“Erik wouldn’t do that.” Alex protests, but the mood in the room is suddenly somber.

“We still don’t know what happened.”

“That’s because we haven’t asked!” Darwin argues.

“Look at it logically,” Alex snorts, because logic is not exactly Angel’s strong suit. “Darwin says he doesn’t remember the accident. In all his memories, Charles can walk. Which means it happened after we left!” Angel says.

“It might mean we left right after it happened! Raven said she remember Charles in his char at her fifth birthday party so it happened before she turned five. She would have been four when we left.”

“Why are you so determined to make Erik the bad guy?” Alex yells.

“I’m not! I love Erik too, but don’t you think this is weird?”

“No! I think it just happened!”

“Ahem.” There’s a cough from the doorway and all three of them spin to see Moira standing there, eyebrows raised. “Sorry to interrupt, but if you don’t want Charles to overhear you, I suggest you keep it down.”

Alex flushes darkly and Moira chuckles. “Come on, let me make you three breakfast and you can tell me what you were arguing about.”

They explain to her about their plan to get Charles and Erik back together, and their fears that Erik left because ofthe accident (and how that would mean that Erik wouldn’t want to get back together, and worse, how much it would change the way they saw their father.)

“Well, I don’t have any ideas for your plan, but I can tell you that Erik, as far as I know, has no idea about Charles’ accident. It happened after he left.” Her voice is quiet and sad.

“When? How did it happen?” Angel asks, leaning forward.

“It was a car accident.” Moira says, and there’s something final in her voice. “That’s all I’m going to say about it.”

“How long have you worked for Charles? I don’t remember you, but you make it sound like you knew us.”

Moira grins at him. “I’m not too surprised. I was your baby-sitter, but I only baby-sat for all six of you once or twice. You were a handful - Charles used to pay me twenty dollars an hour. Apparently, you used to tie up other baby-sitters who didn’t meet your expectations,” she grins nostalgically. “You used to pick on Hank so much,” she says to Alex and Angel snorts.

“Nothing’s changed there.” she mutters.

“I’m pretty sure the two of you were adopted at the same time, so that might have been a part of it.” Moira muses thoughtfully and Alex chokes.

“We aren’t brothers, are we?” he asks, horrified.

“No, no.” Moira assures him, and his sense of relief is so strong he doesn’t even care that they’re all laughing at him.

“So, how did you go from baby-sitter to housekeeper?” Darwin asks.

“Well, I was an old student of Charles’, which is why I was sitting in the first place. I was,” she hesitates, clearly unsure how much to tell them “I was with the other three the night of the accident. The hospital called the house and I told them I would stay with them until Charles was okay.

“He was in the hospital for two weeks and I wouldn’t leave. They were so little, so scared, I couldn’t just leave them. I ended up missing almost a month of classes by the time he was back. He helped me catch up and when I graduated, he offered me the job. He needed someone to help him around the house.”

“And he never mentioned calling Erik?” Alex presses. Moira’s looks sad, her face closing off immediately and he gets the impression there’s some history with that.

“He never called, no,” which is definitely not what he asked, but Moira is already standing, taking their plates and starting to wash them, her back to them in a clear message.

“Hank said there was a work out room?” Alex asks after moment and Moira gives him directions.

When he gets there, he’s somewhat to surprised to see Charles lifting weights in the corner. He’s one machines where the weights have to pulled down- the kind that doesn’t require a spotter. His chair is sitting next to the bench and he’s taken off his shirt. He’s surprisingly ripped, considering.

“Oh, hello Alex.” Charles greets him, lifting the bar up so the weight can settle back on the ground. “Were you looking for me, or have you come to work out?”

“Work out.” Alex mutters.

“Ah. Well, don’t let me stop you. You’re welcome to anything in here. You can turn on the tv if you like.”

“I’m fine.” Alex responds. He feels awkward going to the treadmill with Charles right there, so he heads to another of the benches with arm weights, finally settling on one where you pull the weights towards yourself. As he passes, he notices that Charles is lifting almost 200 pounds and his surprise must show on his face because Charles grins at him.

“You have to be strong to work a wheelchair all day.”

“Hey, no arguments here, man. A strong mind needs a strong body and all.”

Charles starts and the weights give a little jerk. “Yes, Erik used to say the same thing.” he laughs a little, “I suppose you learned it from him, so I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Alex makes an accenting noise, setting the pin in the weights to 120 pounds. “Hank said you mention Erik a lot.” he says casually, sneaking a glace at Charles. The man is blushing faintly.

“Ah, yes. He may have come up in conversation once or twice. I did know him for almost ten years.”

Alex almost drops the weights he was lifting. They had guessed that Charles and Erik had been together for a long time, but ten years? What could have made them split up, after all that time?

“Oh?” he says casually.

“I don’t suppose Erik mentioned me though.”

Surprised, Alex shots another look at Charles, to see that he was staring fixedly up at the bar.

“Um. No. Sorry.”

“Don’t be. I never expected that he would.”

“He has your book, though. ‘Mutant and Proud.’ It’s on his bedside table. I think he reads it before he goes to bed.”

There’s a clang and Alex sits up immediately, staring over at Charles, who had dropped his weights. He’s bright red, and looks stricken.

“Sorry. I just- sorry. I wouldn’t have thought,” he stops, not voicing whatever thoughts are in his head.

Alex stares at him, not sure what to say.

“Well, I think that’s enough exercise for me.” Charles says, voice faint. “I’ve been here for almost an hour and you know what they say, too much work is bad for your soul and all,” he’s babbling, obviously flustered. He pulls his chair closer and swings himself into it with a practiced motion. “You’re free to stay. As I said, you can use anything in here. I’ll just be around. I’ll see you later.”

He wheels out, the muscles in his arm and chest flexing, which really makes Alex feel more optimistic about getting him and Erik back together, despite the chair. All they have to do is get Charles’ to take his shirt off.

\--

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Sean asks in trepidation.

“Of course.” Erik says confidently. “I’m surprised you’ve never done this before.”

Without hesitating, or even asking Sean for confirmation, he slaps the back of Sean’s horse with an open palm before Sean can say that the opportunity had never come up, and the horse takes off, Sean barely clinging on.

Hank and Raven try to surreptitiously move their horses farther away from Erik, which is much harder than it looks on the Western movies Charles liked (he said it was a wonderful example of the human condition, and the closest they could come to seeing the tragic nature of evolution without time travel.)

“And, there he goes,” Raven says, wincing as Sean falls off his horse with a painful looking thump.

“Hm.” Erik says thoughtfully. “I really thought he’d be better than that.”

Hank ends up being disgustingly good at it and Raven kind of hates him for it.

Since Sean falls off when they go faster than a trot, they spend most of the afternoon at a walk, taking their horses over some mountain path that Erik assure them is quite safe.

“I do this all the time with the others.” he says confidently. “You’ll be fine.”

Raven kind of wants to kill Angel, who definitely never mentioned this in their discussions.

“You do this for fun?’ she demands, after almost an hour of riding over a trail that she supposes would be quite pretty if she didn’t spend half her time stopping her horse from wandering off to try some tree.

“I don’t know, I think it’s fun.” Hank replies, because he’s a jerk, and his horse has been lovely and placid the entire time.

“I just thought you would have ridden before,” Erik explains. “Charles always loved to ride. I was sure he would have taken you.”

“Oh. Yes. Well.” Sean blusters.

“He’s always very busy.” Raven jumps in.

Erik frowns. “Didn’t you say he was a professor? Wouldn’t he have summers off?”

“He writes his books!” Raven throws in. “Lots of writing.”

“So much writing!” Sean adds, just in case.

“Right.” Erik says, sounding bemused. “Well, I took you out here because I wanted to talk to the three of you. I was going to wait until the others got home, but I think you should know as well. How do you feel about making Emma part of the family?”

“Part of our family?” Raven hazards.

“Yes.”

“Well, she’s a bit old for adoption, but I suppose, if that’s what you want.” Raven says dubiously, because no way can Erik mean what she thinks he does. “I’m sure Angel wouldn’t mind having another sister.” She’s pretty sure Angel would, actually, if that sister were Emma.

“No. I don’t want to adopt her!” Erik sounds horrified at the idea, which is fair, considering how much kissing they’ve been doing. “I’m going to ask her to marry me.”

Sean made a loud, angry noise that made his horse jump forward, taking off down the path.

“Shit.” Hank says, and kicks his horse, taking off after him.

“Well, that didn’t go well.” Erik sighs, kicking his own horse into motion and riding after them.

Raven tries to get her horse to move too, kicking at it’s side like Hank and Erik had done. It merely flicks one ear back at her, clearly unimpressed. She does it again and the horse breaks into a trot for two steps, then stops. She sits up a bit higher and drops her weight down onto it. Nothing.

Sighing, she tries slapping the horse’s behind with an open palm. It breaks into a gallop, so fast that she barely has time to grab hold of it’s mane.

She ends up overtaking the other three, who all looked very surprised to see her go hurtling past them. In the end, it takes them almost an hour to get back to the stable.

\--

Hank sends Alex a text that night which reads ‘SOS- CALL IMMEDIATELY.’

\--

Alex is shaking when he hangs up the phone after his talk with Hank.

It’s really only bad luck that Charles rolls in during his angry rant in German, because English just can’t contain as much anger as properly used German.

“You speak German?” Charles asks, startled. “Oh, sorry, I suppose, are you alright?” he amends hastily.

“Nein!” Alex yells furiously. “"Weil Erik ein Dummkopf ist, der verheiratet sein will!*”

“Right.” Charles mostly just look confused. “Is there something I can do to help?”

“Du und Erik könntet voher heiraten.**” Alex muses thoughtfully.

Charles blinked at him. “Yes, okay. Just come find me when you’re speaking English again, I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

\--

They have a conference call in one of the guest rooms and, eventually, they all agree that the only thing they can do at this point is get Charles and Erik to the same place at the same time and sabotage Emma as much as possible. Darwin promises that they’ll convince Erik to take them all to one of the larger hotels and Raven promises to make sure that Charles comes with them.

They had decided by mutual agreement that it would be better for them not to meet at Erik’s house, partly because they wanted neutral ground and partly because Erik’s house was on a hill with twelve steps to the front door, an external garage and no downstairs bedroom.

\--

Charles had looked gratifyingly dismayed at the news that they would be switching back soon, and while none of them liked to see him so sad, it was still nice to know how much he cared for them.

“I feel like I’ve hardly gotten to know you,” he said sadly.

Angel looks like she’s on the verge of blurting out the entire plan and that, if it goes right, he’ll have years to get to know them better, so Darwin puts a hand on her arm.

“We don’t want to go either, but apparently we’re needed at home.”

“Yes, of course.” Charles says, still looking inconsolably sad. “And you’re, um, sure that I’m supposed to go with you.”

“We thought it be nice, you know, spend a more days with you. And we didn’t have nearly enough time with the others.We could be like a family.”

Charles swallows hard at that and his voice is wistful and brittle when he responds. “Right. A family,” he visibly pulls himself together. “And Erik knows I’m coming.”

“Of course he does!” Alex lies cheerfully. “He’s really excited about it.”

Charles looks skeptical but doesn’t argue. He flicks a glance at his chair, his hands clenching tight around the handles and for a moment Darwin is terrified he’s going to ask if Erik knows about his condition. He doesn’t though, and Darwin suspects it’s because he doesn’t want to know the answer.

\--  
Moira finds Charles is his study later, his wheelchair pulled tightly between two large armchairs, facing the chessboard that sitting between them. The pieces are arranged mid-game and only Moira’s weekly cleaning sprees prevents them from being covered in a thick layer of dust.

When Moira walks in, Charles is holding the black king in one hand, absently rolling it between his fingers.

"I don't know how I'm going to do this, Moira." Charles says without looking up.

"I brought some tea." Moira offers.

"Is it spiked?" he asks hopefully and Moira grins.

"Only a little whiskey."

"You are lovely, Moira, don't let anyone tell you differently," he takes a sip. There was more than just a bit of whiskey in it, but he isn't complaining. "I don't think I can do this. I always lose my head around Erik. His smile used to make me weak at the knees. Me, can you imagine?"

Moira could actually. She had been his student for two semesters before he had asked her to baby-sit and had heard the way Charles talked about his partner, had seen how he always came back from the weekends grinning and tired but so very happy.

And that was without ever seeing the two of them together like she had when she'd come over and Erik had made her promise to have them all in bed by ten and Charles had been in the middle of telling her which movies they could watch and had let Erik drag him out of the house mid-sentence.

"Well," Charles said with a self-deprecating laugh, "I suppose that's not going to be a problem anymore."

Charles took another long swallow from his cup then looked up at her with a slightly desperate expression. "Can I ask you a favor?"

The last time he'd asked that, she'd ended up on a trip to Disney World with an tree children and a very depressed man in a wheelchair, so it was with trepidation that she replied, "Yes?"

"Would you go with me? Not as a housemaid, even. As a friend. And I'll pay you. It's California, it's supposed to be nice there."

Moira raised an eyebrow. "You want me to go as a friend, who you pay, to California with you?"

"Will you? Please?"

Moira looked from his large blue eyes, to the hand that was shaking slightly as it clutched at her special tea to the chess game that had sat untouched for almost ten years. There was no way she could refuse him.

"Yes, alright. But I get to bring all my nice dresses."

"Whatever you like. Thank you. You'd better get to packing them though. We leave tomorrow morning. Oh god."

\--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> German translation (and much thanks to Feanna, who did all German beta-ing for me):
> 
> *No! Because Erik is an idiot and wants to get married!
> 
> ** Well, you and Erik could get married first.


	3. Chapter 3

"I want you all to understand that I’m doing this under extreme protest." Erik says even as they walk into the hotel.

"Yes, you've made that perfectly clear." Raven replies, giving him a little push. "Keep moving, Erik."

"God, you're bossy."

Raven shrugs, looking perfectly delighted. "I know what I want." she says modestly.

"And she'll do whatever she has to to get it." Hank says conspiratorially.

"How does Charles put up with this?" Erik asks reprovingly.

Hank grins at him. "I think he said he reminded him of you. As far as I can tell, he encouraged it. He always wanted us to be ourselves as much as possible."

"Hm." Erik says vaguely, then "And don't think I'm buying this 'neutral ground is better for Emma' nonsense- you three are up to something, and I will find out what it is."

"Ah yes, but maybe we mean for you find out." Hank grins and Erik rolls his eyes.

"Incorrigible," he says, sounding more amused than displeased.

"If we go up to the room now we can play a round of poker before Emma gets here." Raven offers and Erik shrugs.

"Sure, why not? Let's see what Charles has taught you." he looks surprised at himself as soon as he says it and Raven exchanges a triumphant look with her brothers.

The room they get is large and comfy. Erik is apparently going to be sharing with Emma (a prospect that nauseates all of them) with the three kids in an adjoining room.

"Alright!" Raven says as soon as they dump their bags. "Lets see how good you are!"

Erik makes a disdainful noise and rummages in his bag for a deck of cards. Raven sneaks a look at Sean, who winks at her.

Erik straightens, looking disappointed, "I'm sorry, but I can't find my cards. We'll just have to-"

"It's alright!" Raven interrupts. "I have a deck." She winks back at Sean as she turns to get her deck from her bag. They all gather around the table as Raven begins to deal.

"Just give me a moment." Erik says, as he goes to look in the fridge. "Deal me in."

Raven smirks at the others, carefully dealing out all the cards.

"Alright," Erik says as he sits down. "Get ready to-" he trails off as he notices the cards. It's Charles' deck, the one he gave to Raven when she'd begged for them, the hand-painted ones from a little shop in Paris.

He picks up his hand, turning it over to get a closer look at the back and apparently unconcerned that he's showing all of them his cards (he has two aces and a king, and Hank decides to fold if they ever do play this round)

"These aren't mine," he says absently.

"Of course not." Rave says cheerfully. "I got them from Charles."

Erik is still turning the cards over in his hands. "I didn't know he still had them."

"He taught us how to play with this deck," Sean chimes in and Erik looks surprised again.

"I wouldn't have thought-" Erik cuts himself off abruptly. "Did Charles ever tell you where he got them?"

"Not really." Raven lies. "He did say it was one of the happiest days of his life," which isn't too far off from Charles' actual words. Erik looks like someone hit him. "Why do you ask?"

"Hang on, did you say they aren't yours?" Hank says, as if only just realizing it, and Sean has to bite his lower lip to keep from laughing. "Do you have a deck like them?"

"Sort of." Erik hedges. "They were part of a set. We got them in Paris."

"You went to Paris?" Raven asks, as if this is entirely news to her, and it's worth it, because Erik is still looking at the cards with a slightly lost look on his face, more open than he has been the entire visit.

"It was one of the stops on the boat and we got off together." Erik admits, and this is more than they even got out of Charles. "We had met playing poker, you see, so when we saw this man making hand painted cards, Charles thought we should get a set. He was always sentimental like that, we had only known each other a week. He said that even if we never saw each other again, it would be nice to have the cards as a memory."

Yes, that sounded like Charles. He was big on memories. Erik looks as though he's about to continue when there's a knock on the door.

"Darling?" Emma calls through the door and Raven seethes quietly. They had been so close! Erik's face closes immediately and he looks embarrassed by his story. He put the cards down hastily, as though they burned him and gets up to go let Emma in.

\--

"I never drink." Charles informs the cab driver. "It's quite bad for me, you see."

The cab driver makes a vague grunting noise in agreement.

"Besides, have you ever seen a drunk man in a wheelchair? Not pretty. Running into walls, missing doorways, going down ramps too fast yelling 'Whee!' Really, it's quite embarrassing for everyone. That's why I don't drink."

"You're here, sir." The cabbie says after a long moment, when Charles makes no move to open his door.

"Quite right you are. A drunk person may not have noticed. Which is why I," Charles pauses, as though about to impart some great wisdom, "Do not drink!"

"Yes sir. Are you going to get out, sir?"

Charles stares at the door sadly. "Yes, I suppose I must. My ex is in there. With my children. Half my children. Not half their bodies, of course. Three of them. Three of six, which is why it's half."

"Yes, sir. You should probably get out, sir." The cabbie looks back at Darwin, Alex and Angel with a desperate expression. Angel is giggling quietly, Alex is trying very hard not to laugh and Darwin looks vaguely concerned. None of them make any move to get out of the cab.

"I really don't want to though. We had this awful fight ten years ago and I haven't seen him since. It's one of those times that I really wish I drank. But I don't, of course. Quite bad for you."

"Yes, sir. Please get out of my cab."

"I used to drink once.” Charles confides. “I once drank a bottle that was this long,” he makes an expansive gesture with his arms and nearly hits the cabbie in the face. The cabbie makes another pleading look towards the back-seat, but all three children look more impressed at Charles’ misspent youth than anything else.

Moira had gotten out when they arrived, but she hadn’t yet returned.

“It’s just, I loved him so much.” Charles says sadly. The look on the cabbie’s face implies that he’s seriously considering getting out of his own car. “And then he was gone. He just left.”

His door opens before he can say any more and Moira sticks her head in. “Ride’s here, Charles.” she grins, patting the back of his wheelchair.

“Moira!” he turns to her, looking absolutely delighted to see her. “Hello!”

“Hello,” she responds, grinning back and turning his chair so he could get in to it easier.

He wobbles a little as he swings himself in and Moira puts out a hand to steady him.

“Alright, kiddies. Now or never.” She says, sticking her head back in to look at the three still in the back, look somber and concerned at Charles’ last statement.

“I’m eighteen,” Darwin mutters as he scoots out after Alex. Moira pats him on the shoulder, looking wholly unsympathetic. She pays the cabbie with money from Charles’ wallet, leaving a generous tip which makes him look considerably less likely to drive off with their bags still in his trunk.

“You know,” Charles says as he misses the ramp to the sidewalk twice, ramming his wheels against the curb, “I think I may be drunk.”

\--

“I just wanted to drop my bags off,” Emma says, stepping to the side to allow a belabored looking bellhop to push a cart into the room and begin to unload three full-sized suitcases.

Hank, Raven and Sean, who have two bags between the three of them, give her a disdainful look.

“We’re not moving in here.” Raven says.

“It’s always better to be prepared, dear.” Emma says condescendingly and Raven sneers at her. Erik gives Raven a reproving look. Emma gives a little smirk and moves to wrap her arms around Erik’s neck, pulling him in for a kiss.

Raven makes a gagging noise in her throat. “I’m going to the pool,” she says, striding out of the room and both of her brothers follow. “Ok, that has got to end.” Raven says decisively as they get into the elevator.

“Agreed.” Hank says, while Sean nods.

None of them are expecting to see Charles or the three Lehnsherrs when they get out of the elevator. Hank turns bright red when he sees Alex and looks like he’s seriously thinking about getting back in before Alex sees him, but Raven grabs the back of his shirt to stop him moving.

She’s watching Charles with an expression of incredulous concern. He’s carefully guiding his wheelchair up the ramp with an air of studied concentration, his tongue peeking out from between his lips. Moira makes an attempt to take the handles of his chair, but he waves her off.

“I can do this, Moira. I don’t drink, after all.”

Not only does this make very little sense, but Raven is also pretty sure it’s also false. Darwin catches sight of the three of them first. The three of them are trailing after Charles, looking torn between laughter and worry. When Darwin sees them standing at the door to the elevator, he nudges Alex hard, pointing.

Alex looks up and his eyes meet Hank and Hank is gratified to see that Alex goes a little pink too.

Raven pays absolutely no attention to this display, marching straight over to the ramp.

“Hello, Raven!” Charles greets cheerfully. “You look tan.”

She ignores him completely, glaring at Darwin. “What did you do to him?” she hisses. Darwin raises his hands in immediate surrender.

“That’s not very nice.” Charles protests vaguely. Raven glares at Moira instead.

“The airplane had whiskey. He was quite insistent.”

“He’s never had more than your special tea, and now he’s totally wasted. You couldn’t stop him?”

Moira shrugs. “It seemed like he was going into a very stressful situation.”

“I’m right here you know!”

Raven rubs her temple absently. “You don’t even know the worst of it.”

Moira rolls her eyes. “Hello to you too, Raven. It’s so good to see you. How have you been?”

Raven grins. “Sorry, Moira. I’ve been fine, all things considered.”

“I’m doing lovely, thanks.” Charles pipes in.

“Alright, let’s get this thing hidden.” Raven says, grabbing the handles of Charles’ wheelchair and dealing with his protest by the simple expedient of ignoring them. “Darwin, as the oldest, I’m holding you responsible. Go to the bar and get something to sober him up.”

“That doesn’t seem fair.” Darwin mutters, but he goes to the bar anyway.

Meanwhile, Hank and Alex had been ignoring almost everyone. Their conversation had been rather perfunctory.

“Hey.” Alex muttered, trying not meet Hank’s eyes.

“Hi.” Hank responded shyly, blushing slightly.

They had mostly stood there in silence while Raven ordered everyone else around and had followed her, Charles and Moira into the elevator simply because there was nothing else to do.

\--

Erik is having a weird week - a weird month if he was being honest, which had started with the children he had never expected to see again turning up on his doorstep after ten years of believing they had never even heard of him.

And they’re so much like Charles. Maybe not in personality, they are fully their own people, just as he and Charles had always wanted them to be, but there is something of Charles in all of them and it tugs at him like the tide. It’s in the way Hank babbles when he gets excited, the way Raven rubs her temples when she’s stressed, the way little Banshee tilts his chin up, so proud for his twelve years.

It’s obvious from the first moment that they don’t really like Emma, but he’s kind of hoping they can get over that and get to know her without their biases. He suspects that part of is because they already have another parent and they want to rebel against the idea of a third one, a stranger, when they have only just found the second one again.

He hopes that they, or that at least Darwin, Alex and Angel will see in Emma what he sees in her. She can be brusque and cold, but she is a fiercely strong and independent woman who is simply unused to dealing with children, and he can’t fault her for that.

And, though he tries not to admit it, even to himself, there is something in her that reminds him of Charles. Something in the way she looked at him like she knew him, like she could see right through him. It had been what caught his attention in Charles that first night on the ship and it had initially made him cautious about approaching Emma.

In the end, she had approached him, cool and confident in a way he had always liked, so unlike most of the simpering trophy wives that hung around at the parties his work tended to hold.

It had been almost ten years since he had dated anyone with serious intentions. They could never be what Charles had been to him, but maybe that’s a good thing- he doesn’t want to hurt that way again. There had been days, years when he had feared he would never be able to truly date again, feared that he would leave the children he loved so much without a mother (or whatever) that they so desperately needed.

(The first time he had to explain to Angel how her body would start to change had been one of the most embarrassing moments of his life and had ended with him giving up and dropping her off at a friends house, where he had bribed the mom fifty dollars and free car maintenance for a month to do it for him.)

And Emma was the sort of woman he could imagine being married to - strong, confident, independent, who wouldn’t mind if his work called him out on business trips or if he wanted to have a day with just him and the kids.

She had been remarkably understanding, if not terribly pleased, about the fact that he had another three kids he’d never mentioned and she’d actually been thrilled about Raven’s suggestion that they go stay at one of the better hotels in Northern California.

He didn’t believe Raven’s excuse about getting close to Emma on neutral ground (she had that same too-innocent looks that Charles always got when he was up to something and Erik had caved partly just because he couldn’t bear to see it again.)

He hoped it was something simple, like wanting to get a real California experience. This close to San Francisco could be chilly even in summer and it had clearly come as a surprised to the three kids born and raised on the east coast, who had not expected to need sweaters when the temperatures dropped at night.

Raven especially had been complaining about the lack of palm trees and shirtless guys on rollerskates that the movies had promised her, though Erik suspected this was inspite of, and not because of, his own children’s descriptions.

Just being at the hotel had added to his weird level for the month. Seeing that deck of cards again had been like a punch in the stomach. He had kept his own deck, he hadn’t been able to get rid of it, for all his self-deprecating comments on sentimentality, but he hadn’t really expected Charles to keep his.

He had sort of thought that Charles would be glad to be rid of him, of his tempers and his jealousy that Charles had always complained about.

His heart is still racing from the shock as he kisses Emma (and isn’t it so unfair of him to be thinking of someone else with his hand buried deep in her hair?) and when she steps away to unpack one of her suitcases, he can’t resist running one finger over the cards.

“We’re all out of ice.” Emma says idly, holding out the ice bucket as evidence and Erik shakes himself slightly and takes it from her.

“I’ll go get some,” he offers and she smiles at him, pulling him into another kiss. He hadn’t kissed anyone this much in years and he finds he’s missed it. It doesn't have the fire, the raw passion he remembers from that ship to New York, but then again, he isn’t twenty anymore, so it probably has more to do with hormones then with Emma.

Maybe it’s because he has Charles on his mind, but when he steps into the hall, he thinks he hears Charles’ voice from down the hall.

“Honestly, you have to let me do somethings for myself, or I will become as helpless as you like to think me, and then where will we be?”

And he almost drops the ice-bucket, spinning around to look, but when all he sees is a brunette woman pushing a wheelchair, who ever was in the chair obscured by her body, he shrugs it off. Sean, at the very least, would have mentioned if Charles had become a woman. The boy is no more able to keep his mouth shut now than when he was a screaming new-born who had earned the nickname Banshee.

\--

Raven, Sean, Angel, Alex and Hank are already in the room by the time Moira manages to get the still-protesting Charles through the door. He’s also starting to list a bit to the right, so Moira has to steer carefully to avoid hitting his head on the door frame (tempting though it is by this point.)

Darwin comes in while Raven is talking with Moira about the past week, catching up on how Charles had doing while Moira tried to get information on Erik without mentioning his name outright.

“Drink this.” Darwin offers a glass of what looks like a mixture of mud and tomato juice.

“Don’t be silly, Darwin. I don’t drink.” Charles says gaily. Darwin shoots Raven a desperate look and she rolls her eyes, pushing him out of the way. “Raven!” Charles greets, as though it’s the first time he’s seen her.

“Dad. This is good for you.” She holds out the glass and, when Charles makes no move to take it on his own, she puts it in his hand. “It will make you feel better.”

Charles considers this for a minute. “I do feel a bit fuzzy,” he admits, and Alex snorts. Decision apparently made, Charles tips back the drink and swallows it in one go. “That was awful,” he says after a minute. Then, taking stock of the room for the first time, he sees Raven, Hank and Sean.

“Oh, you’re here!” he says delightedly. “I’ve missed you three.”

“We missed you too, Dad.” Raven says softly, bending down to hug him. Hank and Sean join her after a minute.

“And I see you six have already found each other,” he notes when they pull back. “I fear for this hotel, truly I do.”

Raven grins at him, and Charles grins back for a minute. Then he straightens in his chair, turning to face all of them. “Okay, you six clear out. I have to sober up a bit, and I refuse to do it with six children in my room. Go down to the pool, climb some trees, whatever. Just don’t do anything stupid and I’ll meet you down there in half an hour.” When they all just stare at him blankly, he makes little shooing motions with his hands. “Go on.”

Hesitantly, the all file out of the room, casting looks back at Charles, who just makes more shooing motions when they catch his eyes. A laughing Moira closes the door after them.

“That wasn’t very nice,” she grins.

Charles drops his head into his hands. “I don’t feel very well,” he mutters lowly.

“No, I imagine not.”

“I’m just going to lie down for a tick. You can go down to the pool too, if you’d like.”

Moira shrugs, reading between the lines enough to know that Charles needed a moment to himself.

“I’ll be downstairs if you need me.”

Charles smiles at her as he rolls over to the bed. “Aren’t you always?

She was still smiling as she closed the door.

\--

For all that he lived in California, Erik wasn’t much of a sun and surf kind of guy. It came from growing up near the Black Forrest and was why he had settled in Northern California instead of near Los Angeles.

Which was why, when Emma insisted that she wanted to go down to the pool, emerging from the bathroom in a white bikini, Erik didn’t change into a swimsuit of his own. It’s not like Emma had plans to swim anyway, so he really doesn’t see the point.

The pool is big and open, with chattering kids running to and fro, and Erik finds himself peering at all the dark haired men to see if they were Charles.

Emma goes to lay down on a deck chair and Erik mostly just wanders around. He sees Raven out of the corner of his eye and she waves, looking distracted. She’s talking to a girl with dark hair who’s facing away from him, but of course Angel is in New York, so it can’t be her.

Then he catches anther snatch of Charles’ voice and he spins around, the move bringing him close to the edge of the pool. There’s a man with the same dark curls sitting at one of the table, except then he’s moving, still sitting and Erik realizes that he’s in a wheelchair. So, of course, that’s not Charles but he can’t look away anyway.

Then the man turns, something near the pool catching his eye and Erik gets a full view of his profile and it sure looks like Charles, but it can’t be. It can’t be.

The man who isn’t Charles turns his wheelchair towards whatever has caught his attention and in doing so catches sight of Erik.

And god, it is Charles - no one else has eyes that blue, or would look at Erik with such an expression and it takes a moment for the man in the wheelchair to become Charles, both one and the same.

Erik’s knees give out, just a bit. He staggers a bit and one of the passing waiters bumps into him and before he can even process what’s happening (and why are Charles’ eyes widening like that?) he’s toppling over into the pool and the water is a cool shock that helps clear his head.

He surfaces, spluttering, and yes, that was Angel because she’s now waiting at the edge of the pool. His suit is wet and squelching as pulls himself out of the water, feeling foolish and ridiculous but still looking for Charles.

And then Charles is next to him, looking concerned and obviously trying to get him to sit down.

Erik looks down at him, and he’s always had to look down at Charles, but not like this, oh god, and he’s knees give out again and he drops to the floor next to Charles, kneeling beside him with their heads almost level.

“Hello, Erik.” Charles says calmly, his eyes giving lie to the tone of his voice. “I take it you were not actually informed that I was coming.”

He shoots a dark look over Erik’s shoulder but Erik doesn’t look away, can’t look away. “What happened to you?” he whispers.

Charles breaks the eye contact, looking embarrassed. “What, this thing? Nothing important. It just means I don’t stand during my lectures, you know how I hated that.”

And Erik has to choke down a sob or a laugh or something because that it so like Charles, trying to make Erik feel better when Charles in the one hurt. Not just hurt, this isn’t like when, during their first year of dating, he had sprained his ankle hiking and insisted they finish their trip anyway, but something serious enough for him to end up in a wheelchair. Never able to hike, or even walk again.

Suddenly a hundred things make sense, how Raven, Hank and Sean had never ridden horses, even though Charles had been the one to introduce it to Erik, how Hank said Charles didn’t run with him in the mornings and god, so much of Charles is lost, his sheer physicality, his love of the outdoors and his ability to run and hike and go camping when the two of them had just wanted to get away.

Something of his thoughts must show in his face (or maybe not, Charles could always read him, even when Erik didn’t want him to) because Charles’ eyes go soft and warm in a way that is so familiar and he puts a hand on Erik’s cheek.

“Oh, Erik, it’s not so bad as all that,” and the moment seems to freeze around him, Charles hand on his face, their eyes locked together and everything falls away just as it always did.

“Excuse me, what’s going on here?” A voice cuts through Erik’s idle thoughts and it takes a moment to place it as Emma. “Erik, why are you all wet?”

He straightens immediately, Charles’ hand falling away from his cheek.

“Emma. This is Charles. He’s Hank, Raven and Sean’s father. Other father,” he amends hastily, because they were his as well, they had always been his and he’s not willing to let that go. Emma gives him a cold look at that (had he not mentioned that he used to live with another man?) but he continues anyway. “Charles, this is Emma Frost. My fiance.”

Something in Charles face shutters, goes calm and closed in an instant and Erik can’t even tell what’s missing, what’s changed and has it been so long, or has Charles changed so much?

“Delighted.” Charles says, holding out to shake.

“Yes.” Emma says icily, shaking his hands delicately. “Erik never mentioned you.”

Something in Charles falters (or does Erik just think it does) and his smile looks more brittle. “No, I wouldn’t think so. First rule of dating, after all, never discuss the exes.”

Raven is glaring at Erik and Emma over Charles’ shoulder but Erik ignores her, because what is he supposed to do? Past her, he can see his three and he waves them over.

“Emma, this is Darwin, Alex and Angel. I’ve told you about them.”

"Nice to meet you.” Darwin says, sounding very insincere. Angel mutters the same and Alex just glares at the ground.

“It’s great to meet you three. Erik has just told me so much about you!” Emma says, only barely sounding more enthusiastic than Darwin.

“Yes, this is all very, yes.” Charles says faintly. “I think I left something in my room, if I could just,” he makes an aborted effort to get around everyone, trying to steer his wheelchair around in the confined space. Erik moves out of the way for him quickly, but Charles doesn’t look at him, wheeling past with care for the children and patches of water. It doesn’t look easy and it occurs to him that Charles only came over here in the first place because Erik had fallen in the pool.

\--

“Did you know about this?” Charles asks when Moira lets herself into his room later.

“Well. Yes. The children may have mentioned something.”

“You could have said something. Said anything!” he runs a hand through his hair. “God, I must have looked like such an idiot! Mooning over him like a stupid teenager with his fiance right there.”

“That’s not-”

“One look at him, and it’s like the past ten years have never happened,” he buries his head in his hand. “I don’t think I can do this, Moira. I thought I’d gotten over him, I thought it would be alright. God help me, I’m still in love with him,” he gives a fake, brittle laugh. “And he’s moved on, of course he has. He’s the one who left, it was stupid of me to think otherwise.”

Moira moves closer, putting a hand on his shoulder. “It’ll be alright. You still have the children.”

Charles takes a deep breath. “Yes, that’s right. All of them, now. Maybe they can still visit sometimes.”

“There you go. Look on the bright side.”

Charles straightens in his chair. “I’ll get through this. I did it the first time.” ‘Barely,’ he doesn’t say.

Moira nods sadly and he thinks she’s heard it anyway.

\--

“So. Would you consider that to have gone good or bad?” Alex asks after a long moment.

Raven turns and glowers at him. “I’m going after him.”

Hank catches her arm as she turns to go. “Let him be. Moira already followed him. Besides, I have a plan.”

\--

It’s with great trepidation that Erik follows Raven up the gang plank of a large ship. He gives her a suspicious look when he notices that, beside the four of them, the boat seems to be entirely deserted.

“How did you even afford all this?” he asks.

Raven grins. “The six of us chipped in our allowance.”

“Oh, yeah, right.”

Raven just smirks at him. “Don’t worry, it’ll be fun!” she assures, rushing forwards to get the door for Erik.

Charles is already inside, staring absently out at the water while Alex, Darwin and Angel mess around with something in the back corner.

Charles turns when he hears the door open and his face lights up when he sees Erik, just like it used to.

“Hello.” Charles says softly and Erik smiles.

“Hello.” he responds, taking anther look around the room. Angel is laying places at a table, while Alex lights some candles. Except, “That table isn’t big enough for eight people,” he says.

“Oh. That’s the other surprise!” Raven says cheerfully. “We’re not joining you.”

“Raven,” Charles says severely, but Erik cuts him off.

“No, it’s fine. We can catch up.”

Charles looks strangely reluctant and Erik feels vaguely offended by that, but he covers it with a smile. All six of their children look delighted.

Moira steps out of one of the side doors. “Hello, I’m Moira and I will be your server this evening,” she shoots a side look at Charles. “Sorry, Charles. They made me.”

Charles laughs at this. “Quite alright, Moira. I’m sure we’ll have a wonderful time.”

Raven makes a little squeaking noise that makes all of them look at her and she flushes a bright red.

“Enjoy your dinner,” Darwin says cheerfully, ushering everyone else out in front of him. Hank is the last one to leave, pushing a button on the stereo as he goes.

The cabin is instantly full of slow, romantic music. Erik looks at Charles, eyebrows raised and Charles goes red.

“It wasn’t me,” he protests and Erik has to stifle a grin. He’s still so adorable sometimes.

“You do get what this is about, don’t you?” Moira asks, getting a tray from a side table and bringing it over to them as Erik takes a seat and Charles wheels over to the place set across from him.

Charles peers around the cabin, catching sight of a life preserver with ‘Queen Elizabeth II’ written in barely dry paint. “They’re trying to recreate the night we met!” He laughs, amused.

“They missed a few details,” Erik grins and Charles smiles back.

“I doubt even our children could recreate a full-sized casino in a few hours.”

It’s the first time in ten years that Charles has called the children ‘our’ Erik feels his breath catch in his throat. Charles must see something in his face, because something in his expression falters and he drops his eyes.

The silence stretches between them and Moira fills their water glasses, looking awkward.

“So, you’re doing well for yourself,” Charles says. “Are you really helping to build planes?”

“Yes, and I work at local the local car garage when I’m between projects.”

“You never liked being idle,” Charles’ expression is soft and Erik coughs.

“And what about you? Teaching full time and publishing books like you always wanted? I’m only surprised you didn’t move back to England and teach at Oxford.”

“Yes, well. Circumstances made that quite impossible, I’m afraid,” he replied, and his cheeks are flushed again, but this time it’s not so cute and Erik feels a rush of embarrassment, because of course he should have known.

He’s opening his mouth, to say something stupid, no doubt, because he wants to apologize even though he knows that Charles won’t want to hear it, would rather just move on with the conversation, when Charles cuts him off.

“It’s no big deal though. I quite like Westchester, and the mansion is a wonderful place to raise the children,” he thinks for a moment, then adds, “Though California is quite nice too.”

And Erik bursts into laughter, because that is so much like Charles, to be so unintentionally condescending- trying to pay someone an honest compliment and making it sound more like an insult.

Charles looks vaguely offended at his laughter, but his eyes are soft.

“I’m so glad you approve,” Erik says when he stops laughing,.

Charles give him a soft look. “You never needed my approval.”

Erik thinks of the early days, when he would get books on genetics just to impress Charles, and how he would spend hours packing a picnic basket for an afternoon walk and he can’t bring himself to tell Charles that he is wrong. “I never minded it though.” he says finally, and Charles smiles.

“So, what shall we do about the children?” Charles asks as Moira returns to fill their glasses. “I doubt they will take kindly to being separated again.”

“We raised them way too stubborn.” Erik laugh.

“Never!” Charles exclaims.

“We could visit over summers.” Erik suggests.

“Or I get them for a year, and you get them for a year.” Charles counters.

“And what, have them registered to two separate schools each?” Moira says scornfully. Erik gives her a cold look. “Oh, sorry! I’ll just-”she jerks a thumb over her shoulder and leaves through the swinging door.

Charles stifles a laugh behind his hand. “Do leave poor Moira alone, would you Erik?”

“Hmph.” Erik grumbles. “That still doens’t answer our question. I suppose this is why we came up with the arrangement in the first place.”

Charles gives a bitter laugh that he can’t stop. “I wasn’t aware we planned it. I thought it was because you couldn’t bear to see me again.”

Erik runs a hand through his hair. “That was never the problem, Charles. Surely you know that.” and then, because he can’t help himself, because the question has been building all day, for the past ten years. “What happened that day? Do you even remember?”

Charles doesn’t ask what he means, he just looks sad. “It all happened so fast. I just- you were leaving and I was so angry.”

“You told me to leave!” Erik protests, because Charles doesn’t get to put this all on him.

The look Charles gives him is slightly reproving. “I didn’t want you to leave. You must know that.”

It had occurred to him, over the years. But if that was true, then, “You never came after me.” He knows Charles- knew him, at least. And if there was one thing that he knew it was that if Charles had wanted him back, Charles would have come to get him. And when he hadn’t... Well, Charles had been the one who’d told him he may as well leave.

“I tried, once.” Charles says with a sad smile. “I didn’t make it to the airport.”

“There you go, then.” Erik says decisively. “You couldn’t even go through with it, so maybe it was better this way.”

He can’t interpret the look Charles gives him in response, but it is laden with meaning and very sad and he can’t help but think he’s missed something very important as Charles replies “Yes, I suppose you’re right.”

\--

Hank is staring out over the water on the far side of the boat when he hears footsteps. He doesn’t look up, expecting it to be Raven.

“Is it all going according to your plan?” he asks.

“Well, I’m not going to take credit, but it seems to be going pretty well,” Alex says, leaning against the rail beside him, so close that there was only an inch of space between their arms.

“Alex!” Hank says, jolting up with a start. “I, um, thought you were Raven.”

Alex shrugged. “I figured as much. Here, I stole this from the kitchen,” he hands Hank a soda, still dripping from the cooler.

“Thanks. Nothing says generosity like grand theft soda,” Hank grins and Alex bumps his shoulder against Hank’s with a smile.

They sip their drinks in quiet for a couple minutes, watching the lights reflect on the water.

Gathering his courage, Hank turns to Alex. “That day, at the airport. Did you mean it? Or was that another prank?”

Alex looks surprised at the question. “What do you think?”

Hank sighs, fiddling with his glasses. “Honestly, I don’t know what to think about you, Alex. You confuse me,” he gives a little laugh. “More confused than I think I’ve ever been before.”

Alex is watching him with an inscrutable expression. “Maybe it’s good for you,” he suggests.

Hank flushes, ducking his head shyly. “Are you going to answer my question?”

Alex frowns at him. “Figure it out, bozo,” there’s no ire in his voice, the term sounding almost like an endearment. Hank isn’t sure what to say to that, so he watches Alex push off of the rail without saying anything.

As he watches Alex walk away, he figures that probably wasn’t what Alex came out to say to him.

“Fuck,” he whispers to himself.

\--

Charles is not amused when he comes down to the lobby the next morning to find, not the three children he was supposed to be taking back to New York, but six children, standing in a solid line without a single piece of luggage in sight.

“I assume there’s something you want to say to me?” he asks, and Raven, apparently the elected spokesperson (and why is he not surprised by this?) steps forward.

“We’re not going back with you.”

Erik, who had come down to say goodbye, says “Oh? And why is that?”

“You can’t separate us again. We’ve only just met. Besides, I like Erik and I want to spend more than a week with him.”

“We’d like to get to know each other better too,” and Charles really is surprised that it’s Hank who steps forward. Hank goes a little red as he says it.

“Here’s the deal,” Raven says, and Hank steps back into the line. Charles notices that Alex gives Hank a little smile and he resolves to keep his eye on that, if this ever pans out. “Erik usually goes on a camping trip. We want to go. All of us.”

Charles raises an eyebrow. “You want me to go on your camping trip.”

Raven falters, apparently noticing the glaring flaw in her plan. “Yes?”

“And where, exactly, will I find the handicapped entrance to a mountain?” he asks and Raven flushes slightly.

Then Charles catches sight of Emma, standing on Erik’s right and gripping his arm with perfectly manicured fingers and gets a wonderful idea.

“But you’re right,” he says, and even Emma turns to look at him at that. “You children should get more time to be together. And if Erik is ok with you joining him, I see no reason why you shouldn’t.” He turns to Emma with a cheerful smile (he suspects his own children see the mischief in it, but he hopes no one else does) “In fact, this would be a wonderful opportunity for you to get to know your new step-mother. Emma, you should go with them.”

Emma looks alarmed. “Oh no. I’m not a camping kind of woman.”

That is abundantly clear. Charles gives her an innocent look. “Don’t you want to know the children? I mean, in a couple of months, they’ll be half yours.”

Erik is giving him a suspicious look, but Charles just smiles cheerfully.

Hank, apparently catching on first says “Oh, yes! It’d be so great if you would come. We hardly know you at all!”

Emma hesitates. “I’ll need time to pack.”

“Of course.” Erik assures her, still giving Charles sideways looks. “We wouldn’t go until tomorrow.”

As Emma gives him a decidedly nasty look, Charles reflects that just because Erik isn’t his anymore doesn’t mean he has to be nice about it.

\--

Erik’s truck barely holds all eight of them, the six children squished into the backseat, with Sean ending up sitting on Hank’s lap, which earns them smirks from the Lehnsherr siblings.

They had dropped Charles and Moira off at Erik’s house, leaving him the keys and enough food to get though a long winter.

Erik parks at the base of the mountain with an easy familiarity and helps all of them unload their backpacks.

“If we make good time, we should reach the campsite by four,” he doesn’t look at Emma, but all six of the children do. She shoulders her bag (hardly large enough to be considered a proper backpack) with a distinctly sour expression.

Two hours in and she doesn’t seem to be doing any better.

“I’m going to kill my trainer,” she mutters to herself. “He told me I was in shape.”

Raven snorts and Hank whispers to Sean “What kind of shape? A triangle?”

Alex, walking a little behind him (not at all to admire the sight of Hank in jeans, for once) laughs and Hank turns around to give him a little smile.

“I. Need. A break,” Emma pants fifteen minutes later and they all groan.

“Be nice,” Erik says reprovingly and Raven rolls her eyes.

Emma sits down on a rock, dropping her bag down behind her. “It’s so heavy!” she complains, though not loudly enough for Erik to hear her. This time they all roll their eyes, because her backpack is easily a third the size of theirs and holds practically nothing.

Angel, walking slightly behind Emma, picks up a large rock and mimes hitting Emma over the head with it and they all snicker.

“What?” Emma demands.

“Oh, nothing,” Raven smiles innocently.

Angel, about to put the rock down, stops and looks at it consideringly. Then she slowly bends down and opens Emma’s backpack. Alex has to turn away before Emma can see his face.

Angel puts three rocks in before she closes the backpack and moves away.

“Hand me a water.” Emma says imperiously, holding out a hand expectantly to Sean.

About to snap at her to get her own water, he catches sight of a large lizard regarding him from a nearby rock. Grinning, he picks it up and perches it on Emma’s water bottle before handing it to her.

To his delight she doesn’t notice it before she raises it to her lips. There’s a beautiful moment when Emma is frozen, her eyes locked with the lizard’s. Then it’s tongue flicks out and Emma shrieks, flinging the bottle away from her.

Erik, who had gone ahead to check out the path, rushes back with a concerned look on his face.

“What happened?” he asks, sounding considerably less worried when he saw that it was just Emma looking bothered, with all of the children trying not to laugh around her.

“There was a lizard,” Emma explains.

Raven picks it up with a mischievous expression. “It’s a harmless little thing,” she says, holding it up to Emma at face level. Emma rears back and Alex snickers.

When Emma turns around, hoisting her bag back on with a grunt of effort, Raven carefully leans over and puts the lizard on Emma’s blonde hair.

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re up to,” Emma hisses to them as Erik moves back up the trail (Alex feels like this a mistake on Emma’s behalf, but it’s for that reason he really doesn’t care.) “You don’t want me to get together with your father. Let me one thing perfectly clear. I. Don’t. Care. I will marry Erik, and you will get over it. And, if I have my way, all six of you will be going to a boarding school in Sweden. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly,” Raven says, then, as Emma turns away, “Cruella.”

Emma turns back with deliberate slowness. “What did you say?”

“Nothing.” Emma turned away again. “Cruella.”

Ignoring her this time, Emma hoists her back higher on her back and sets off after Erik.

“Hey, Emma!” Alex calls after her. “You have a little something in your hair.”

Emma reaches up to touch her hair and it takes a few moments for her to find the lizard amoung her bedraggled curls. Her touch starts it into motion and it jumps.

Emma shrieks. Alarmed by the noise, the lizard scuttles forward and then, to their great delight, it climbs directly into her open mouth. She flails, still making high pitches noises around the lizard. Raven feels a bit bad for it.

Finally she manages to spit it out, clawing at her mouth, still shrieking. She’s even stamping her feet, looking like a child throwing a temper tantrum. Erik comes rushing back, looking less concerned this time.

“What now?” he asks, resigned.

Emma, still trying to wipe her tongue off, just points at Alex.

Erik gives him a cool look. “Alex,” he says sternly.

Alex shrugs. “Don’t look at me. I was right behind you.”

Erik gives all of them a sweeping look. “Behave. All of you.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Alex mutters grumpily.

Emma, now rinsing her mouth with her water, gives all of them a dirty look and storms off, her exit ruined by the fact that she has to make a concentrated effort to get over the next log.

Hank exchanges a look with Raven and rushes to catch up with her. Alex pointedly doesn’t admire view. (Hank had tried to leave the house in his usual khakis and button up but Erik had refused to leave with someone who couldn’t dress like a real hiker. Darwin had handed over a pair of jeans and Alex had loaned Hank a shirt, something that was pretty distracting if he thought about it for too long.)

(They were all pretty surprised that Emma’s skin tight white sport pants and stomach-showing white tube top had passed muster, but it was worth it when they all saw how quickly it got dirty.)

“Hey.” Hank says, catching up to Emma with ease.

She gives him a cold look. “What?”

Hank raises his hands placating. “I just wanted to apologize for the way my siblings are acting. I think you’d be good for Erik.”

Emma gives him a sideways look. “Uh-huh,” she says skeptically.

“Believe me or not, I don’t care,” Hank shrugs. “I just thought I should mention something- the others didn’t want me too. But if you don’t trust me.”

“No, what is it?”

“It’s just, there are some pretty dangerous animals out here, it’s why Erik wants to get in before dark. Mountain lions, especially.”

“What?” Emma exclaims, giving the woods around them a nervous look, like there are mountain lions around every bend.

“Oh yeah. And tigers and bears,” Hank adds, completely unable to help himself.

“Oh my,” he hears Alex mutter. Emma, too concerned by this new threat, doesn’t notice.

“But there’s a way to keep them away.” Hank says helpfully. “It’s what they didn’t want me to tell you.”

“Yeah?” Emma asks.

“All you have to do is bang two sticks together. The noise scares them off.”

“Really?” Emma asks and Hank gives her his most innocent smile.

“Promise.”

\--

It takes them until almost six to reach the campsite. Emma collapses by the water. Her hair is in disarray, her white pants and top are splattered with mud and her arms and legs are liberally covered in bug bites. It’s a proud moment for all of them.

While she lies there, looking pathetic, Erik organizes camp set-up like military general. Alex and Darwin are in charge of tent set-up, Hank starts a fire, Raven and Angel go to get more water from a pump at the edge of the camp site and Erik starts showing Sean how to fish. He almost gives Emma something to do, but one look at her convinces him otherwise.

One by one, they all join Sean and Erik at fishing and he patiently shows Hank and Raven how to do it properly. They joke and play around so much as they wait that it’s a miracle they catch anything, but they end up with four large trout and Erik pronounces himself satisfied.

Sean looks a little horrified as Erik guts and skins the first fish, so Hank pulls him down beach and plays tic-tac-toe with him until Erik is finished.

“Are you sure you don’t want any?” Erik asks.

Emma makes a face. “No, thank you. I do not like fish. Especially fish that I just saw you catch. Who knows what could be in that river? I will wait until breakfast. What is for breakfast?”

Erik exchanges a look with Darwin. “Trout,” they say together.

“Great.” Emma mutters. “You know what, I’m done with this. I’m going to bed.”

She picks up two large sticks from the side of the fire and begins to bang them together, looking around her cautiously as she approaches their tents.

“Emma? What are you doing?” Erik asks, sounding amused.

“It’s to keep the mountain lions away,” she says, then catches sight of his face. “There are no mountain lions up here, are there?”

“No.”

Hank snorts into his trout and she glares at him.

The rest of them finish up their meals pretty quickly after that and divide up to their three tents. There’s one for Angel, Raven and Sean, one for Hank, Alex and Darwin and a third for Emma and Erik.

“You go in, I’m going to stay out here for a bit.” Hank says, waving the others away and he goes to sit by the water, taking off his socks and shoes and letting the water touch his feet.

He’s not surprised when Alex joins him.

“Whatchya doing?” he asks, dropping down next to Hank with a soft thump.

Hank shrugs. “I just like the night. It’s so peaceful out here,” he shivers as a breeze runs through their little valley. “A little cold though.”

Alex rolls his eyes and shrugs off his hoodie and draping it over Hank’s shoulders. “Bozo. We warned you guys. But you were all ‘no, it’s California, it’ll be hot, we’ll be fine, we’re from New York.” Alex imitates in a nasally voice.

“I’m pretty sure none of us ever said that.” Hank says mildly and Alex shrugs.

“Whatever.”

They both stare over the water, the crescent moon reflected perfectly in still water of the lake. Hank fiddles with the sleeve of Alex’s sweater. “I’m sorry about what I said the other day,” he says after a long moment and Alex makes a vague noise that could mean anything and really isn’t very helpful.

“I wasn’t trying to say you’re a jerk or anything. It’s just, guys like you don’t pay attention to guys like me, unless it’s to pick on them. Which, to be fair, you kinda did, when we first met. So it really wasn’t an unreasonable question and-”

“Hank. Shut up.” Alex says, leaning over and kissing him. Hank goes stiff for a moment before he slowly relaxes into it. Unable to help himself because Jesus, Hank’s lips, Alex opens his mouth and licks at his mouth.

Hank groans, low in his throat and his lips part and then they’re really kissing and Alex presses Hank back onto the sand, moving so that he’s straddling Hank’s hips. Hank is making little whimpering noises that really make Alex want to dirty, filthy things to him.

“Did it ever occur to you,” he asks, pulling back, panting slightly. “That you might have confused me too?”

He dives back in before Hank can reply, licking his way into Hank’s mouth, wet and dirty and Hank groans again, then, with a show of strength that shouldn’t have surprised Alex but did, Hank flips them over.

“Are you telling me,” Hank whispers, stopping to kiss Alex again, “That you were such a bastard to me because you were confused?” He bites at Alex’s lips furiously and Alex’s mouth drops open, a moan escaping him. “You dyed my clothes blue.”

Alex rears up to pull him back into another furious kiss. “They were horrible anyway,” he says back and Hank pushes him back into the sand and kisses him hard.

“I liked those clothes!”

Alex pushes up with his knees and shoulders and manages to roll on top again. “You died my hair red!” he snarls. “It’s still pink!” He slots his mouth against Hanks and drives his tongue in as Hank squirms underneath him deliciously. Hank reaches up and fists his hand in Alex’s still-pink hair, holding him in place while his other hand wraps around Alex’s waist.

He gives a hard tug that makes Alex’s knees slide out against the sand and drives their hips together and they both moan. Alex puts both hands on Hank’s bony hips and pulls him closer and one of Hank’s hand drops down to his ass.

Alex pulls away, panting. “Moving a bit fast there, bozo?”

And Hank fucking growls, which was really fucking sexy and Alex is pretty sure he’s ok with too fast, especially since Hank is taking advantage of his raised head to lick and bite at Alex’s throat which is making it kind of hard to breathe, let alone think and yeah, fast is totally fine with him.

It might have gotten completely out of hand except a loud snore interrupted even Alex’s lust-induced haze. Hank starts, craning his head around to try and look towards the tents.

“Was that Emma?” he asked incredulously. It comes again, cutting through the night silence like a foghorn.

Alex drops his head onto Hank’s shoulder, shaking with silent laughter. “Oh my god,” he mutters. He can feel Hank laughing under him and rolls off reluctantly.

There’s another snore and they’re both laughing so hard it’s an almost painful effort to stay quiet.

Then, suddenly, Hank’s eyes go wide and he sits up, shaking Alex’s shoulder.

“Alex. I have an amazing idea. How heavy a sleeper is Erik?”

“Pretty heavy, actually. Nothing short of a truck going through the living room can wake him.”

“That’s sure what it sounds like,” Hank mutters and they both double over laughing again.

“Why do you ask?” Alex asks when they calm down.

“Come with me.” Hank whispers, tip-toeing towards Erik’s tent and slowly pushing aside the tent flap.

For packing reasons, they had brought two twin-sized air mattresses rather than a queen size that could have fit two adults and Alex is absurdly glad of it as Hank gestures for him to grab the other corner of Emma’s mattress, dragging it carefully out of the tent.

“Is that seriously what she’s wearing?” Alex whispers incredulously. What’s she’s wearing is a silky white negligee that barely reaches her knees and Hank makes a face. Emma snorts and rolls over.

“This is the best idea ever.” Alex says as they give her bed a big push into the water, watching it drift out across the moonlit lake.

Hank makes a little bow and Alex just has to kiss him. They keep it light and when they pull away Hank whispers “We should go to bed,” with obvious reluctance.

Alex smirks at him “Save it for the second date, Beast.”

Hank flushes. “You know what I mean, asshole.”

Alex laughs. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”

They watch Emma drift farther out then turn together and head into their tent. They’re both a bit disappointed to see that Darwin has claimed the middle sleeping bag, but it’s probably a good thing.

\--

Hank is jolted awake by a ear-piercing shriek that, as soon as he places he surroundings, it’s music to his ears.

He, Darwin and Alex scramble out of their tent in time to see Emma standing on her inflatable mattress, shrieking like a maniac.

“Was this you?” Raven asks, coming up beside him and he nods.

“Me and Alex.”

“Really?” she asks. “Good for you,” she sounds like she’s talking about more than the bed. They’re both still watching Emma flail around, her negligee looking even more ridiculous in the middle of a lake.

“She’s going to fall,” Sean comments calmly. Sure enough, when Emma stomps her foot the mattress tips dangerously and she unbalances and falls in. When her head breaks the surface of the water again, she’s still shrieking. Hank is reluctantly impressed with her lung capacity.

“Was this one of you?” Erik asks, coming to stand next to them as they all watch her swim closer to shore, still flailing and yelling.

“I have no idea what you mean,” Raven says innocently.

“She must’ve sleep walked,” Angel adds.

“With her mattress?” Erik asks. He doesn’t sound very upset- mostly just resigned.

“People do crazy things,” Sean chimes in.

“It’s true,” Darwin says. “I read a study about this guy in Seattle who robbed a jewelry store in his sleep.”

“Uh-huh,” Erik says skeptically. “Well, this is no jewelry and now I have to sort out a mess you caused.”

“He doesn’t sound very upset.” Hank mutters to Alex.

“He’s terrifying like that.” Alex whispers back.

Emma has finally made it to shore, her negligee clinging to her in a way that might be flattering if she weren’t such a horrible person.

“Alright, Erik!” she yells. “It is time for you to choose! It is either me or them. I will not put up with those, those monsters in my house.”

“Well, it’s a good thing it’s not your house, isn’t it?” Erik asks calmly.

Emma goes still. “Excuse me?”

Erik smiles, all teeth and cold eyes. “I said, it’s a good thing it’s not your house. It’s mine. And those children, my children, will always be welcome there,” he pauses, considering. “But you won’t be.”

“EXCUSE ME?!” Emma yells. “Are you, are you dumping me?”

“I thought that was pretty clear.” Erik says, still calm. “But I’ll break it down for you. I choose my children. I will always choose my children. You can get lost.”

Sean cheers, then subsides quickly when Erik gives him a sharp look. But when Erik turns away, Sean cheers silently and all six of them exchange discreet high fives.

\--

The ride back to Erik’s house is somber. They’d essentially left Emma at the campsite (it would have been unbearably awkward to hike back with her, much less the drive) but Erik is confident she can call a cab. He’d liked her initially because of her intelligence.

He can tell the children are holding their own little celebration in the backseat (Darwin is sitting awkwardly in front, trying not to make any physical contact with Erik at the risk of earning his ire) but Erik’s cold look is keeping them in check.

Erik himself has mixed feeling on the subject. If he thinks back on it, he was never really in love with Emma, she had just been a logical choice and he was glad he’d realized what she was really like before they got married, but on the other hand he had thought he was in love and had liked that feeling. He had liked the idea that maybe there would be someone around to help with the kids, the idea that he might be able to give them something that had been missing for as long as they could remember.

His thoughts flicker briefly to Charles but he tries not to let himself dwell on it. That ship has sailed, and though none of the children will say it, Erik can guess that Charles is with Moira now. Why else would she have traveled to California with them? And he had heard the casual references made to her living with them.

It was almost funny, their last fight had been about Erik’s jealousies (well, it had started that way, and just snowballed into a product of sleep-deprivation and stress) and Erik had never even considered little Moira the babysitter.

But if Charles wasn’t with Moira, well. He’d never really gotten over Charles in the first place and seeing him again is like pulling at an old cut, painful and raw. He’d forgotten the nuisances of Charles in the past ten years, the way Charles would smile at him as if Erik was all that mattered, the way his curls fell over his forehead, the way he acted like nothing in the world could possibly bother him. The way he made Erik feel like he could do anything, as long as Charles was beside him.

If he were perfectly honest with himself, his relationship with Emma had been over the second he’d seen Charles again, whether or not Charles was still available.

When they get back to the house, all of them pile out of car, gathering their bags from the back with gloom that Erik suspects is half-feigned.

"Erik? Is that you?" Charles voice comes from deeper in the house and Erik has to swallow before he can speak, trying to pretend it doesn't make him feel warm and a bit fuzzy at the thought of Charles there to greet him when he came home.

"Yes, it's us."

"You're back early," Charles remarks, wheeling into the room and looking at them all quizzically. He catches sight of the children's faces. "What's wrong?"

"We're grounded until we die." Raven says glumly.

"Why? Where's Emma?"

"Emma left. She had an issue with waking up in the middle of the lake."

Charles' gaze flickers to the children, all looking perfectly innocent. Erik glowers at them. "What- what a shame," Charles says after a moment.

Erik gives him a dirty look. "Don't pretend like you had nothing to do with it."

Charles blinks at him. "What?"

"You encouraged her to go camping. Trapped her into it more like, I'm on to you."

Charles spreads his hands wide. "I am an open book, Erik."

Erik snorts, because that has never been true.

"Right, this is great," Alex interjects. "But I'm going to go shower now. I smell like lake water." Alex, by virtue of looking the most suspicious had been the one made to swim out get the air mattress. He pushes past them to head up the stairs.

The others watch him go, then look at Erik hopefully. He points up the stairs after Alex.

"Go," he commands and they all file up the stairs, looking appropriately chagrined.

"I was just about to start dinner." Charles says, turning back to the kitchen.

"You cook now?" Erik asks in surprise. Charles gives him a sheepish look.

"I was making pasta."

"Pasta sounds great."

"There's only enough for the two of us though- I was expecting it to be just me. There won't be enough for the kids."

"They can starve," Erik says grumpily.

"Erik," Charles says reprovingly and it's so familiar that Erik's breath catches.

He rolls his eyes to try and hide it. "Alright. We can order them pizza."

"I'll do it. You should go change, and I'll finish cooking." He says cooking as though it requires some great effort on his part, far more then is warranted by putting noodles in a pot of water and taking them out at the right time.

"What are you saying?" Erik asks, looking himself over.

"Only that you need to change, my friend," And Erik turns away, because he can't stand to have Charles see his face at that moment.

He ends up showering, and he tries not to think about the fact that he's putting on his date clothes. He passes by Darwin's room on the way back down and all the children are inside, apparently playing poker.

"Looking snazzy, Dad. What's the occasion?" Angel smirks at him.

"Goodnight," he says firmly, closing the door.

"Have fun on your date!" Alex calls as the door closes and he can hear all of them giggling. He should have beat them as children.

Charles turns to greet him with a smile when Erik walks in.

"Ah, good. I can't reach the plates, do you mind?" They're in one of the upper cabinets and Erik feels breathless in the worst possible way at the causal reminder of all the ways Charles is limited.

Charles catches sight of his face and his eyes soften. "Erik. It really isn't so bad. Your house just isn't accustomed to me- I don't have problem as often as you'd think," he smiles, looking soft and affectionate. "Now stop worrying and get the plates or my pasta will get cold."

"And what a shame that would be," Erik says, but his voice is rusty and the sarcasm doesn't carry over as he intended.

"Quite. Where is your dining room?"

Erik, who only ever uses the dining room for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, shows him the way, holding doors for him when necessary.

Charles doesn't say anything, but he gives Erik a little smile as he passes through.

Erik is half expecting the dinner to be awkward, but it isn't. The table is built for eight people, but they sit opposite each other at the far end of the table and it feels intimate.

"Where's Moira?" Erik asks as they settle in to eat.

"I think she went into San Francisco. I gave her the day off." That's a weird way to put it, but Erik doesn't comment.

"So, how long have you two been together?"

Charles barely even pauses to think when he replies. "About ten years now."

Erik goes cold. It feels like all the blood has drained from his face and it takes a concentrated effort to take another bite of pasta. It tastes like ash in his mouth.

"So that would be right after I left, then."

Charles hesitates, looking reluctant. "Not long after that, yes."

An awkward silence falls, and Erik idly twists his fork in his hand and tries not to look at Charles.

"She's been great, truly," Charles says and Erik really doesn't want to hear it. "I mean, I only hired her to look after the children while I was in the hospital, but she ended up staying on afterwards."

"Yes, that's- wait. You hired her?"

Charles peers at him, bemused. "Yes? She is their nanny. Well, housekeeper now, I suppose."

Relief floods through Erik so strong that he feels lightheaded. "Oh. That's, that's good."

"I suppose so," Charles acknowledges, still sounding confused. "Why? What did you- did you think we were together? Me and Moira?"

"It wasn't unreasonable," Erik says stiffly. Then the rest of Charles words process and his gaze sharpens. "You said you hired her while you were in the hospital. Ten years ago."

This time it's Charles who won't meet his eyes, playing with the food left on his plate. "I said that, yes."

"Your accident happened ten years ago," Erik says slowly, not liking where his thoughts are taking him.

"Around then, yes." Charles says evasively. Erik reaches forward to grab his hand. pulling it in between them.

"Charles. How long after I left did this accident happen?"

Charles looks away. "Erik, don't do this. It doesn't matter."

Erik squeezes his hand. "When was it?"

Charles closes his eyes. "About a week after you left."

Erik sits back, shocked. "Why didn't you call me?"

Charles eyes snap back to him. "I had no reason to think you'd come."

"How can you think that?" Erik recoils.

"You just left. You left and you took our kids, my kids! How was I supposed to know? I thought you were done with me."

"But I thought- you said you went to the airport. Why would you try if that's what you thought?"

"Erik, please!"

"Tell me! What changed?"

Charles is looking away again, flush high in his cheeks. Erik takes his hand again. "Tell me what changed, Charles."

Charles closes his eyes, looking tired and defeated. "Everything."

It's like a bucket of cold water as all the pieces finally fit together. "No," he whispers and Charles winces."You crashed on the way to the airport." It's painful to say aloud, the words catching in his throat like knives and Charles still won't look a him.

"I'm sorry." Charles whispers. "I didn't want you to know."

"That it was my fault?" Erik says. Charles head whips around.

"No!" he protests. "No, of course not."

Erik feels sick. "If I hadn't have left, you wouldn't have-" he stops, unable to finish.

Charles grips his hand."It's not your fault, Erik. Never think that."

"Do you ever wonder what it would be like if you hadn't crashed?"

Charles met his eyes squarely, expression sad. "Every day."

Erik leans back in his chair, processing everything that could mean. If he had only checked up, only called once- the past ten years might never have happened. If it hadn’t been for his stupid, damnable pride, then it wouldn’t have just been Charles doing the chasing. If he hadn’t been waiting for Charles to apologize, if he had shouldered some of the blame himself, then Charles could be walking today, the two of them raising their family in England, or California or anywhere in between.

Charles leans forward and grabs his hand. “Do not dwell on it, my friend. This is simply the cards I have been dealt, and I have come to terms with that. It is notyour fault anymore than it was mine. I was driving, after all.”

Erik can’t bring himself to look at Charles, to see the empathy he does not deserve. “If I had just-”

“Erik!” Charles snaps and the shock of it makes Erik look at him. Charles’ eyes are fierce and very blue. “We both make mistakes that night, and we have both payed for them. But I have had three wonderful children and my life is not the misery you are making it into. It’s done now, it’s over. All we can do is move forward.”

He holds Erik gaze until Erik slowly relaxes, giving a slight nod. Then Charles releases his hand and picks up his fork. “Right. Well, that’s quite enough of this conversation. Now, tell me what happened to Emma.”  
\--

"How do you think it's going?"Alex asks scowling as Raven takes the kitty again.

Darwin shrugs. "I haven't heard any shouting. So, not too badly."

"Is Erik really angry at us?" Sean asks as Hank starts to deal them another hand.

"Nah," Angel assures him. "Not really angry. I mean, it was pretty obvious that Emma was a bitch. He'll probably want to thank us."

Hank looks deeply skeptical. "Is that likely?"

Alex thinks it over. "No."

"What if it doesn't work?" Raven asks, bitingly her lip worriedly. "What if we just go back to New York and you stay here and we never see each other again."

"That won't happen," Darwin says consolingly. "Even if they don't stay together, they'll have to let us see each other," he raises his chin. "We'll make sure of it."

"Yeah!" Raven agrees. "Misfit toys forever," she says to Hank and Sean, but Darwin, Alex and Angel confirm "Misfit toys forever," along with them.

\--

After dinner, Charles suggests a game of chess. Erik smiles when he says it, the first since Charles' revelation and Charles is glad to see it.

Erik sets up the pieces with practiced care and Charles has a flashback to all the nights they spent in his study, playing late into the night and talking about everything they could think of.

Erik seems to catch the tail end of his thoughts and smiles at him. "Just like old times, right?" he says.

'No.' Charles thinks, because back then Erik was his, all his and now he'll never have that again. "Just like."

Erik makes himself black, and that too is familiar.

"So what are we going to do now?" Charles ask in a couple moves. "About the children, I mean. They won't want to be split up again. And," he hesitates, than adds. "I would like to get to know them."

"There's no reason we have to split them up at all." Erik says, meeting Charles' eyes boldly. He moves his knight to E5 and takes a rook.

Charles takes a deep, sobering breath against the rise of hope Erik's words created in him. "What do you suggest?" Pawn to B4.

"I suggest that we stay together. All of us- a family."

Charles bites his lip."That won't work, Erik, you know that," he wants to, oh he does, but he doesn't think he can stand being around Erik, all the time, wanting what he can't ever have again.

"I don't, actually," Erik replies calmly, "Why don't you explain it to me?"

Charles falters and pretends great fascination with the game, moving his bishop to C6 without any sort of strategy.

"It just won't," he protests feebly. Erik raises an eyebrow at him and there's amusement lingering in the depth of his eyes.

"I said that to you once. Do you remember?"

As if Charles could forget.

Standing at the prow of the ship at the end of their two week journey, Charles turning to Erik and saying "Come with me," an open invitation into his home, his life, his heart.

And Erik, almost glowing in the light of the sinking sun, fear in his eyes and whispered "It won't work."

Charles had smiled, so confident in his love for Erik, in the love they shared. "Why not?"

"It just won't."

Erik must see the memory in Charles' eyes because he smiles and says "Do you remember what you told me?" When Charles remains silent, Erik sighs. "You said, maybe it won't, but that's no reason not to try. I've never as happy and alive in my life as I have with you."

"Erik," Charles whispers.

"Has that changed, Charles?"

Charles tries to find his resolve, the strength to deny it, but it's as true now as the day he said it. He looks away.

Erik huffs a laugh. "I forgot how god-dammed stubborn you are," he says. He stands up and Charles feels a sudden rush of fear, that this is it, Erik will walk away because Charles is too much work.

Instead Erik moves to his side, crouching down beside the wheelchair. Before Charles has time to process anything but Erik's sudden closeness, Erik wraps a hand around the back of Charles' neck and tugs him into a kiss.

Charles completely melts into it, memories and desire overwhelming his resistance. Kissing Erik feels just like it always had, like coming home, like begin set on fire, like losing control.

He loops his arms around Erik's neck, pulling him closer and Erik makes a startled sound, one hand braced on the arm of Charles' chair. They kiss with ten years of passion and regret and Charles holds it close to him because it's all he's going to get.

He pulls away out of sheer willpower and he knows that the Charles of ten years ago wouldn't have been able to do it.

Erik looks a little dazed when he pulls back and Charles has to smile at the sight before he sets his face.

"Tell me you don't want this," Erik whispers.

Charles closes his eyes and lists the reasons why this won't work, that he was a cripple who had only barely raised the children he had on his inheritance and love alone and the knowledge that Erik would soon get tired of living in memories and realize the truth- that Charles wasn't the same person he'd used to be, incapable of all the things they used to do, from their weekly hikes to something as simple as decent sex.

Watching Erik walk away the first time had almost killed him, in more ways than one, and this time he had the children to think about as well, children who did not deserve to suffer for Charles' mistakes. He won't be a burden, on them or Erik.

His gaze is steady when he meets Erik's eyes. "No, Erik."

Erik glares at him. “I don’t believe you.”

There’s a sob, or a wail, something dark and powerful and sad, building in his chest but he stuffs it down with the last dredges of his self-control. “Does it matter? I won’t stay. I don’t want to get back together, I don’t want to try again.” he tilts his way in the proud way he knew Erik always hated. “We split up for a reason, Erik. Let’s just leave it there.”

Erik stands abruptly and Charles can only watch him, throat too tight to say any more.

“Dammit, Charles.” Erik says softly. Then he turns and walks out of the library. Just like Charles had known he would.

Charles sits there for a long time, unable to see anything but the sight of Erik walking away. He barely notices when the door the the study starts to blur. Silently, he buries his head in his hands.

\--

It's raining the next morning. Of course it is, Hank thinks bitterly. Why wouldn't it be raining? Raven, Sean and Moira are slowly loading their bags into the car, but Hank hangs back, standing next to Alex.

None of them can quite look at Charles, who looks like someone attending a funeral, or Erik, whose cold expression is broken only by the downward tilt of his lips.

Without letting himself think about it, Hank reaches down to take Alex's hand. They only have a couple minutes left, he's not going to waste them on being scared.

Alex lets out a long breath and slowly rests his head against Hank's shoulder.

Raven gives them both a sad look and doesn't bug Hank to help load the car, instead she just takes his bag without comment and puts it in the trunk beside her own.

"You know, I think I might actually miss you, Bozo," Alex whispers and Hank manages a small smile.

"Alex?" he replies softly.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up."

Alex smiles sadly and Hank leans down to place a soft kiss on his lips. He hadn't realized until this moment, when they probably won't see each other again for months, how much he'd come to care for Alex and his dry wit, his sarcastic humor and even his quick temper.

Alex fists a hand in Hank's shirt and pulls him deeper into the kiss. It’s desperate and hungry and the rain is plastering their hair down to their heads and it’s like every movie cliche but Hank can’t stop because he doesn’t to leave.

In the end, it’s Alex who pulls away first. “You should go,” he says softly.

“Yeah.” Hank whispers, feeling lightheaded. He gets into the cab feeling numb and cold, not even registering that Raven and Sean aren’t catcalling or cajoling them like they normally would be.

Charles is watching him with an inscrutable expression. He looks sad and it’s worse than any of his distant moments in the past and Hank can’t find it in himself to blame Charles for what was happening.

Moira stands by Charles’ side as he swings himself into the passenger side of the cab. It’s something Hank has seen him do a hundred times before, always so calm and nonchalant that it didn’t seem any different from the way Hank slid in to the backseat.

This time, there’s something cold and bitter in the twist of Charles’ jaw and his hand slips in the cold rain and he almost falls. Erik makes an aborted move forward and Moira catches Charles’ arm before he can fall, but Hank catches sight of his face.

Charles looks absolutely shattered, like whatever it is that has been hurting him for so long is suddenly broken. Hank has to look away because he can’t see it, that expression of raw grief almost physically painful.

He sees Moira turning away, once she’s helped Charles into the car, and Hank knows that she’s seen it too. She strides over to Erik and Charles is watching her suspiciously, but all Moira does is throw her arms around him his neck in a hug, pressing her head close to his shoulder.

Erik looks startled, but his arms go around her and after a moment he returns the hug.

When she breaks away, it’s like a final goodbye from all of them.

The cab pulls away, and they barely make it out of the driveway before the rain obscures their vision and the others are lost from sight.

\--

Erik stares after them long after the taxi is no longer visible, trying to deal with the fact that Charles is gone from his life again.

Moira’s last words ring in his ears and he can’t understand why she told him at all. He’d rather not know.

“Whatever he told you, he’s lying,” she’d whispered, twisting her head so her mouth was close to his ear. “Whatever he said to get you to let him leave- don’t believe him. He used to wake up yelling for you in the hospital, but he wouldn’t let the nurses try and find you. Sometimes he still wakes up yelling for you. He thinks he’ll be a burden. He’s not over you yet,” she had sighed, a sad exhale that he could feel over the curve of his ear and his arms went around her waist in reflex. “I don’t think he ever will be. Don’t make the same mistake you made ten years ago.”

Erik can feel Alex beside him, almost trembling with pent up feelings. Then, suddenly, Alex whirls, punching the wall with a cry. “Dammit!” he yells and Erik reaches or him without thinking, pulling Alex close to his chest like he used to do when Alex was still just an angry child from the orphanage.

Angel comes up and wraps her arms around both of them and Darwin comes up on his left. They stand there for a long minute, drawing comfort from one anther in the pouring rain until Erik pulls away.

“Come on,” he says, examining the blood staining Alex’s knuckles. “Let’s go get you cleaned up.”

\--

The mood when they get back to the Mansion more closely resembles a wake than a homecoming and Charles knows that he should do something for his children (especially Hank- how could he not have noticed that?) but he doesn’t have the energy and he just asks Moira to make them all hot chocolate.

He goes to his study instead, planning to stare at the half-finished chess game and the liquor cabinet in equal measure, not touching either.

Instead, his chair comes to a stop directly inside the door because there is someone in Erik’s chair.

He feels a momentary flash of panic mixed with confusion (what kind of thief comes to sit in someones study and look at their chess set?) when he realizes that the figure in the chair is Erik and he’s staring at the half-finished game with a bemused expression on his face.

He turns when he hears Charles enter the room.

“Did you know that a private jet can get you across the country in half the time?” he asks. His tone is casual, but his right hand is a tight fist and a quick glance at the board shows that it must be the white king he has clutched in his palm.

“I’d never considered it,” Charles says weakly. “What are you doing here?”

Erik stands, coming towards Charles and dropping to his knees beside him so their faces are level.

“It took us about five minutes after you left for us to decide we didn’t want to live without you.”

“We?” Charles asks.

“I think the others went to the kitchen. You can say hello to them later.”

Charles closes his eyes. “What are you doing here, Erik?”

“I’m not leaving you again,” Erik whispers, pressing his forehead against Charles. “I left you ten years ago and I’ve regretted it ever since.”

“And you expect me to just fall into your arms and let you stay here and we’ll just work all this out, with you living in California and me in New York and everything will just fall into place?”

Erik places a feather light kiss on each of Charles’ closed eyelids in turn. “Yes.”

“And we’ll just get back together like nothing has changed in ten years?”

Erik gently kisses Charles on the lips, letting his mouth rest there for a moment before pulling away just far enough to speak. “Yes.”

“And you’ll somehow be fine with this stupid chair, even though I can’t even move anything below my waist and it’ll all be fine?”

“Yes,” Erik growls and he claims Charles in a fierce kiss with all the longing and passion and determination he had in him.

Just like before, Charles melts into the kiss, opening his lips to Erik’s tongue and wrapping his arms around Erik’s neck to pull him close while Erik runs fingers through his hair.

Erik pulled Charles’ left hand into his right one, pressing something something solid into his palm. Charles pulls away long enough to glance down.

He’d been wrong- it was the white king and the black king, lying together in his palm like they’d always belonged there.

There is something fierce and joyous in Erik’s face as he looks at them, lying in their entwined palms. “I knew you loved me,” he hisses triumphantly and Charles’ laugh is tremulous but real as he pulls Erik back into a kiss with fingers that shook.

\--End--

Epilogue

Once the three Xaviers got over the shock and joy of seeing the Lehnsherr children standing in their kitchen, Hank pulls Alex into a dark corner by the pantry.

“What did you do to yourself?” he asks, raising Alex’s hand to eye level to inspect it carefully.

Alex shuffles his feet a bit. “I punched a wall.”

Hank kisses his knuckles gently. “Idiot.”

“Hey,” Alex growls, grabbing the front of Hank’s shirt and pulling him close “That’s my line.”


End file.
